Surgery: splint – brace – or bandage – Bandage structure – Skin laceration or wound cover
Patent
1997-05-30
1999-07-20
Apley, Richard J.
Surgery: splint, brace, or bandage
Bandage structure
Skin laceration or wound cover
424445, A61L 1500
Patent
active
059250097
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention is concerned with an alginate fabric, and in particular the use thereof as a wound dressing and a method of preparing the same.
Alginate fibres have been known for some time as being useful in the preparation of alginate fabric wound dressings. A number of methods for producing conventional alginate fibres are described in the art. The extrusion of alginate solutions into an aqueous solution containing calcium ions to form calcium alginate filaments is known, for example, from British Patent Specifications Nos. 567641, 568177, 571657 and 624987. The replacement of a proportion of the calcium ions in calcium alginate by sodium ions to produce a more soluble fibre is known from British Patent Specification No. 653341.
Alginate fabrics have, in conjunction with charcoal cloth, been used in wound dressings for malodorous wounds and examples of such commercially available wound dressings are sold under the trademarks KALTOCARB, ACTISORB and LYOFOAM. A dressing available under the trade mark KALTOCARB comprises a non-woven alginate pad and charcoal cloth fused together with a polyamide net; a dressing available under the trade mark ACTISORB comprises charcoal cloth together with silver sealed within a nylon sleeve and may further include one or more absorbent layers; a dressing available under the trade mark LYOFOAM includes viscose fibres treated with activated charcoal encapsulated by a layer of polyurethane foam.
EP 0099758 also describes a composite wound dressing which can include alginate fabric used in conjunction with charcoal cloth. The wound dressing of EP 0099758 comprises a semipermeable membrane, which may comprise an alginate, a supporting layer such as charcoal cloth and a biodegradable tissue interface such as sodium-calcium alginate. The supporting layer is located between the semipermeable membrane and the biodegradable tissue interface.
A problem associated with known alginate wound dressings which employ charcoal cloth is that the dressing is a relatively rigid structure. Furthermore, the known dressings have been constrained to the use of charcoal cloth which limits the absorptive properties thereof for wound odourants due to the fixed surface area of the cloth. The above is due to the hitherto inability to incorporate charcoal within the alginate fabric, and the use of certain types of charcoal, such as powder, granules or the like, has therefore been excluded from alginate fabric wound dressings.
We have now developed an alginate fabric which alleviates the above problems, and there is provided by the present invention an alginate fabric having particulate charcoal dispersed therein.
There is further provided by the present invention a wound dressing comprising an alginate fabric, the fabric having particulate charcoal dispersed therein. Typically the fabric employed in a wound dressing according to the present invention is 0.5 to 5 mm thick.
The charcoal can be in the form of powder, granules and the like. Suitably powdered charcoal is employed in fabric according to the present invention, as this provides an increased surface area for absorption of odourants from malodorous wounds. Aptly the charcoal employed in the present invention has a surface area of 500 to 3000 m.sup.2 /g, more aptly 1500 to 2500 m.sup.2 /g and most aptly 1800 to 2200 m.sup.2 /g.
Typically the charcoal is present in the alginate fabric in an amount of 1 to 30% by weight, based on the weight of the fabric. More suitably however the charcoal is present in an amount of 10 to 20% by weight, based on the weight of the fabric.
The alginate fabric of the present invention desirably comprises alginate fibres which are very much more absorbent than conventional alginate fibres. This is a considerable advantage for use in environments where high absorption coupled with biodegradability is desired, for example in wound dressings such as dressings for ulcers or burns. The high rate of absorption achieved with such fibres employed in alginate fabrics of this invention is a further advantage, particularly f
REFERENCES:
patent: 5470576 (1995-11-01), Patel
Fenton John Charles
Kershaw David
Mahoney Peter M. J.
Pritchard David
Apley Richard J.
Bristol--Myers Squibb Company
Furman Jr. Theodore R.
Hart Kelvin
Kilcoyne John M.
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