Dressing and Wound Care

Surgical & Wound Dressing Types

We stock a large range of wound dressings and bandages to ensure well-managed and faster healing. It's important to ensure you have the right dressing for the wound depending on where the wound sits in its healing process. Ensuring the material and function of the bandage is the appropriate material and holds the correct function:

• Material – including gauze, transparent film, alginates, composites, hydrocolloids, hydrogel dressings and foam dressings
• Function – including moisture management (absorbency) and controlling excess fluid, infection control (antimicrobial), bleeding control (haemostatic), skin-closure, debridement and odour control.

Controlled, moist healing is appropriate for most wounds, promoting new cell growth and division, with the exudate (liquid matter released from the injury) acting as a transport medium for cell migration across the wound site and creating an anti-pathogenic environment. Chronic exudate can, however, lead to maceration and damage to the skin’s surface, so the correct balance must be struck, which typically involves different types of dressing for different stages of the healing process.

Our Range of Dressings & Bandages for Wounds

Absorbent Wound Pads & Dressings

Suitable for wounds with mild to moderate exudate, the absorbent layer helps prevent maceration.

Transparent Film Dressings

Translucent film dressings made of polymeric, flexible materials are semi-permeable or “breathable”– acting as a barrier to ingress by microorganisms and liquids while allowing moisture-vapour transpiration. This creates a moist wound environment for the wound, which promotes healing. They also enable continuous wound monitoring without removing the dressing. The BNF recommends transparent film dressings for catheter sites and partial-thickness wounds with eschar or minimal exudate.

Haemostatic Dressings

These are highly absorbent dressings that apply pressure to a wound site to prevent further bleeding, as well as reduce the risk of infection.

Injection Bandages

Designed to cover puncture wounds resulting from injections or cannulation, these are usually supplied pre-cut to size. They include IV fixation dressings, which often have a deep U-shaped notch to create a tight seal around the catheter site.

Skin-Closure Strips

Used as a non-invasive alternative to sutures or staples, these are ideal for closing up deep cuts, lacerations and surgical incisions, with greater edge-to-edge accuracy and a reduced risk of scarring, as well as less discomfort for the patient. They also increase the tensile strength of the wound site, which helps to stem bleeding and guard against dehiscence (wound separation) but are not suitable for use on fragile skin.

First Aid Strips

Pre-cut plasters made out of fabric or composites, these are used to protect minor cuts, blisters and abrasions.

Eye Patches

These include sterile, permeable patches to promote injury or post-operative healing and orthoptic eye patches for occlusion therapy in children with amblyopia (lazy eye).

Medical Tapes

Also known as surgical tapes, these are adhesive tapes used to quickly and firmly secure wound dressings and bandages, as well as splints, ostomy bags and other medical devices (including electrodes, probes and medical tubing such as IV lines, centre-line catheters, PICC lines, enteral feeding tubes and drainage tubes). Medical tapes are described as pressure-sensitive as they require an amount of pressure to bond.