The Benefits of Oligomeric Switch Adhesives in Advancing Wound Care

Background: A nursing study by Hollinworth and Collier concluded that dressing changes are one of the most painful and traumatic wound care procedures. As such, there’s an unmet need to develop medical pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) that possess high peel force when in contact with the skin and low peel force when removed to provide improved wound care. The means by which the peel force of a skin adhesive has been modulated in the past has included physical approaches (peel angle, skin deformation) and chemical processes that implement a “switch” that can be activated during removal to significantly reduce the peel force of the adhesive.

Purpose: Herein, we report the development of an oligo-glycerol sebacate (OGS) as an adhesive “switch” that is activated via the contact with 50-91% isopropyl-alcohol (IPA) to promote a rapid decrease in peel force during removal of a medical PSA.

Methods: Glycerol and sebacate were combined under a polycondensation reaction to form OGS.  OGS was blended into a solvent based PSA in varying ratios and coated onto various films, including a nonwoven bandage and a polypropylene tape material.  

Results: There was a 94% drop in peel force with the application of IPA, occurring on a clinically manageable time-scale (3-10 seconds) as proven by time-dependent and concentration-dependent studies using analysis of variance. Statistical differences were also considered significant when p < 0.05. Additionally, the bandages, tapes and dressings possess very high moisture vapor transmission rates (MVTR). This MVTR of the transparent dressings was shown to be greater than 6200g/m² at 24 hours.

Conclusion: The technology found within this research is amenable to current manufacturing processes and ready for incorporation into medical PSAs so that providers, patients, and consumers might have a simple and inexpensive means of diminishing pain and skin trauma during the removal of medical bandages, tapes and dressings.