Library >> Browse Articles >> Skin Conditions
Wound dressing selection
Article Submitted by:
The application of preparations or coverings to wounds has been in practice for thousands of years. Sesame oil was used in Babylon in 2250BC and honey and sugar in Egypt around 2000BC. There are periods in history when ideas about wound treatment became extreme and hazardous. Hippocrates (460-370BC) advocated cleanliness in wound care, saying wounds should be washed and covered with linen soaked in wine and vinegar. Bewteen 1205 and 1320 Theodoric of Cervia and Henri de Mondeville believed that wounds should be cleaned and debrided, and the Aztecs irrigated and covered wounds-albeit with urine and plant sap. The best contribution to wound care was the germ theory by Pasteur, Lister and Koch, and Fleming's finding penicillin in 1928, first used in 1941. Two concepts can be seen time and again thru history of wound management, first the factors IN the wound must be corrected and protecting the wound with a covering. After this period no real advances came for 40 years. In 1962 a physiologist named Winter formed a number of partial thickness wounds on the backs of pigs. He left half the wound open to air so scabs formed, the otherswere covered with a polymer film to stop drying. The wounds covered with the film epitheliazed twice as quickly as those exposed to air. All studies since have proven that moist wounds heal and dry wounds do not.
