Dressing Material: Applications & Health Benefits

Dressing material is needed to care for wounds of all kinds. In this regard, there are a large number of types that serve to provide the best possible care for a wide variety of injuries so that healing can take place quickly.

What is bandage material?

Basically, the term dressing material includes all utensils that are needed to care for acute or even chronic wounds. Basically, all utensils that are needed for the care of acute or chronic wounds are summarized under the term dressing material. However, this does not only include simple plasters and dressing rolls. Nowadays, there are plenty of newly developed products that are supplemented with certain substances to accelerate the healing process. For example, plasters coated with hydrocolloid gel have been available for some years now, which keep wounds covered with them moist and thus ensure significantly faster healing on the one hand, but also noticeably reduce the formation of unwanted scars on the other. They thus offer real added value for the user. Particularly in the treatment of chronic wounds, great successes have been achieved through the revision of the available dressing materials. Dressing materials in the broader sense also include aids such as scissors, gloves and disinfectants. These make work easier and protect the practitioner from infections. For this reason, they should never be dispensed with.

Forms, types and kinds

Whoever hears the word bandage material, usually thinks first of plasters. It is a, made of a suitable fabric or even plastic, wound dressing, which is attached to an adhesive tape. Normally, the wound dressing is highly absorbent and often contains additional antibacterial agents. Some manufacturers also supplement it with a special coating so that painful sticking to the wound is avoided. In some cases, a plaster is not intended to treat a wound directly but, for example, a corn or a water blister. These types of plasters are characterized by a filling of gel or hydrocolloid, which has a cushioning effect. In the case of injuries such as bone fractures, immobilizing bandages are required. Stable materials such as metal, wire, plastic or even wood are used for them. Nowadays, however, the most widely used is the plaster cast. If complete immobilization is not required, elastic bandages or tape dressings can also be used, which should be firmly applied. It may be possible to supplement this with padding materials such as compresses or absorbent cotton dressings.

Structure and mode of operation

Compression bandages are often made with the help of elastic bands or special stockings. There are two basic subtypes of this type of bandage: the long-stretch bandage and the short-stretch bandage. If an effect also in deeper layers as well as a static pressure are desired, the application of a long-stretch bandage is recommended. These are made of more elastic materials and are particularly suitable for mobile patients. Short-stretch bandages, on the other hand, are made of less elastic materials. They have a more superficial effect and are the better choice for bedridden patients. Classic wound dressings are usually made of textiles. They often have several layers that perform different functions. Nowadays, moist dressings made of water-retaining hydrocolloid gel are very common. They accelerate healing or even make it possible in the first place. Particularly in the case of persistent clinical pictures such as ulcus cruris, they offer a chance for lasting improvement. Other newly developed materials such as alginate and special foams also offer an effective way of greatly reducing the size of wounds that were previously difficult to treat. The newly developed dressings already prevent adhesion to the wound. If they cannot be used, metal-coated tissue or fatty gauze must be applied to prevent adhesion. Finally, the dressing is fixed with gauze bandages, linen bandages or elastic textile tubes.

Medical and health benefits

In principle, bandages have a very wide range of applications. Depending on the area, different requirements are placed on the dressing material used. First and foremost, dressings should provide protection against environmental influences, because the penetration of foreign bodies and pathogens into the wound in question should be virtually excluded.Bandages also serve to protect against mechanical stress. Wounds that have already been closed can burst open again as a result of movement. In the worst case, this can even destroy newly formed tissue. This can be prevented by bandages. An example of this is the plaster cast for bone fractures. In some cases, dressings can also be used to apply drugs. This type of application has been elaborated in recent years, leading to the development of transdermal therapeutic systems. When a bandage is applied, injured areas are always also more or less compressed. This has several positive side effects at once: Swelling is reduced, lymphatic drainage is promoted and thrombosis is prevented. In addition, bleeding is stopped by compression. An extreme example of this is the pressure bandage, which is used to stop the flow of blood to an extremity in the case of life-threatening injuries, so that the affected person does not bleed to death. It can therefore be quite life-saving, even if it always carries the risk of death of the ligated body part. Particularly in the case of weeping wounds, dressings fulfill the function of absorbing secretions. This improves hygiene and makes wound infection less likely. Finally, dressings serve to relieve pain. The placebo effect should not be disregarded here, because a proper dressing encourages the patient to believe that his wound has received the best possible care and will now heal quickly. It also often helps that serious injuries are virtually hidden by a bandage, so that the sight of the wound does not constantly trigger a new shock. All in all, then, dressing material fulfills a variety of tasks.