Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Preparations characterized by special physical form – Web – sheet or filament bases; compositions of bandages; or...
Patent
1997-11-14
2000-06-20
Page, Thurman K.
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Preparations characterized by special physical form
Web, sheet or filament bases; compositions of bandages; or...
424445, 424447, 424449, A61F 1300
Patent
active
060775262
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wound dressing and more particularly but not exclusively to a wound dressing including an absorbent fibre layer,
BACKGROUND TO THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is a requirement of a wound dressing that it should protect the wound from exterior foreign body invasion etc whilst promoting healing of the wound through maintaining a desirably moist and warm environment about the wound.
Traditionally, wound dressings have comprised a non-woven web of material such as cotton wool with gauze to provide a pseudo non-adherent coating which will allow wound exudate to be absorbed whilst inhibiting incorporation of the actual wound dressing in the regenerated skin tissue of the wound.
There are readily apparent limitations with a traditional cotton wool wound dressing with regard to the amount of exudate absorption per weight of wound dressing and the bulk of this type of dressing. It will be appreciated that ideally wound dressings should be replaced as few times as possible in order to ensure the wound remains warm and moist. There is a significant temperature drop about the wound site upon each occasion that the wound dressing is removed, however, and with previous wound dressings it was necessary to replace the dressing quite frequently particularly with burns as the dressing quickly became saturated with exudate.
It is known to provide multi-component wound dressings which comprise two or more absorbent layers in order to enhance absorption capacity. One or more of the layers being replaceable when saturated. Examples of such multi-component wound dressings are given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,613 (The Kendall Company) and WO 93/07841 (Cummings).
Although these multi-component dressings may include hydrophobic fibres and gells, the objective is to limit wound trauma when removing the replaceable absorbent layers. Thus, the absorbent layers tend to be highly incapsulated and present several filmic barrier layers to the wound site greatly reducing the suitability of such dressings for highly exuding wounds. These multi-component dressing are most suitable for long term use in relatively slowly exuding wounds.
More recently alginate and polysaccharide fibres have been investigated for wound dressings. However, these fibres can be too aggressive with respect to the rate of exudate absorption and also may cause irritation about the wound site. Furthermore, some types of absorbent fibre may present toxicology and sterilisation problems.
OBJECTIVE OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a wound dressing which may incorporate aggressive absorbent fibre materials without the above mentioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a wound dressing comprising several layers of absorbent material secured together to form the wound dressing, the wound dressing being characterised in that at least one of the absorbent layers is a regulating layer, the regulating layer comprising a non-woven fabric selectively entangled through its depth in order to create zones of varying density and so regulate exudate flow from a wound site on one side of the regulating layer to the absorbent layer coupled to the other side and so effectively isolate in use the absorbent layer from the wound site and to regulate the absorbency rate of the absorbent layer to ensure in use the wound site remains essentially moist.
Preferably, the regulating layer and absorbent fibre layer are needled together.
Preferably, the wound dressing includes a non adherent macroporous cover for contact with the wound and a microporous backer layer.
Preferably the regulating layer is formed from a blend of polyester fibres and viscose fibres.
Preferably the edge of the wound dressing is sealed with a woven tape adhered between the top and bottom of the wound dressing or is bonded using ultrasonic welding techniques.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
An embodiment of the present invention will now be desc
REFERENCES:
patent: 4655758 (1987-04-01), Ring et al.
patent: 5256477 (1993-10-01), Mahoney
patent: 5374260 (1994-12-01), Lemay et al.
patent: 5677028 (1997-10-01), Ravella
McCabe Catherine
Scully David Christopher
Page Thurman K.
Shelborne Kathryne E.
Texon UK Limited
LandOfFree
Wound dressing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Wound dressing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Wound dressing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1849972