Comparison of Two Silicone Foam Dressings’ Performance

Background: Pressure injury/ulcer prevention is guided by evidence-based best practices. These include good skin care, repositioning, nutritional supplementation, continence management, support surfaces and other interventions that include multi-layered silicone foam dressings.

Purpose: Our study compares the performance of two silicone foam dressings in 48 healthy subjects for a period of 7 days.

Methods: The dressings were applied to the subjects’ back and were either lifted (once per day) or unlifted (per randomization schedule).

Results: Results demonstrated longer wear time in both lifted (NS) and unlifted (p=0.0003) conditions for dressing A versus dressing B.  Pain reported upon removal was also significantly greater in both lifted (p=0.028) and unlifted (p=0.004) conditions for dressing A. Edge lift for dressing B was significantly greater (p≤0.01) in the unlifted condition (for all timepoints except T168) and about the same as dressing A in the lifted condition.  Edge roll score for dressing B was significantly higher (p≤0.01) than dressing A in the lifted condition (except for T24) and no significant difference was found in the unlifted condition (at all timepoints). Tunneling was also significantly lesser (p<0.05) for dressing A in both lifted and unlifted conditions (at all timepoints except for T168).  Other parameters which demonstrated no significant difference were: comfort during wear and removal, migration, 2-bond failure, and re-stick (except for T24 hours where dressing A scored higher).

Conclusion: Taken together, our study shows that dressing A performed better and highlights the need for similar advanced dressings with desirable characteristics. The impact to pressure ulcer prevention will be significant when implementing such interventions.