The Management of Heavily Exudating Wounds with Super Absorbent Dressing

Samantha Austin – Practice Nurse, Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT

50 year-old restaurant owner Mr B, attended his local A&E department after a large saucepan of boiling water was dropped onto the floor. Mr B sustained a Superficial Partial Thickness burn of the dorsum and ankle of the right foot, involving varying depth through the dermis, it was moist with moderate to high exudate from the large blisters. The blisters were de-roofed in A&E and non-adherent dressings and bandages were applied.

Mr B attended an appointment with the Practice Nurse at his own GP surgery 2 days later where the wound was found to be leaking high levels of serous exudate and the bandages were dirty and had slipped down causing swelling to the calf. Mr B reported that he had to carry on working in his restaurant on a daily basis and was unable to rest during this busy period.

Various non-adherent primary dressings and absorbent pads were trialled; however, due to the nature of the patients’ work and long periods of standing, it was problematic in maintaining a clean, dry wound environment with standard light support bandaging.

The Eclypse Boot was trialled as a clinical solution to assist in the management of excess fluid around the foot and ankle. It’s pre-shaped design allowed the patient to work, did not restrict his mobility, was highly conformable and therefore the dressing remained intact. This facilitated the healing of the wounds in a clean environment and also resulted in the benefit of a reduction in dressing change and application time.