This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (83)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Why, When, Which?

Vincent Falanga, MD

Arch Dermatol. 1988;124(6):872-877.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

For more than a century, the practice of dressing a wound has had as one of its major rationales the prevention of infection. Dressings can theoretically protect the wound from gross microbial contamination and help to prevent the spread of infection to other patients on the surgical ward. In this setting, one thinks of dressings as a barrier between the wound and the outside world. It is a relatively novel idea that the composition and properties of the dressing itself can play a major role in modifying the wound microenvironment. In the span of a decade, three key observations have helped physicians think of dressings as pharmacologic agents. Odland¹ first observed in 1958 that a blister healed faster if left unbroken. Then, in a 1962 landmark article, Winter² showed that occlusion of wounds with a polyethylene film (Polythene) more than doubled wound epithelialization in domestic pigs. Finally, Hinman . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, University of Miami School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication March 9, 1988.

Reprints not available.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?