Debridement is of central importance in wound healing and should be the initial stage in all wound treatment. Because only in a carefully cleaned wound can modern wound management products be wholly effective. (1) The innovative product Debrisoft® from Lohmann & Rauscher (L&R) stands for rapid and virtually painless debridement. Results from clinical practice2 confirm high user satisfaction and patient compliance.
At the conference of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) 2013, held from 15 to 17 May in Copenhagen, L&R presented its innovative monofilament fibre pad Debrisoft® for gentle and yet effective debridement.
Positive rating in the EWMA position paper
The topic of debridement was a core theme of this year’s conference with the publication of a position paper by international wound experts (3), that was presented by one of the authors, Trudie Young, Cardiff/United Kingdom, at the L&R Symposium. According to the paper, debridement with a monofilament fibre pad can be considered as the method of choice for mechanical debridement: “[...] the monofilament fibre pad shows the potential to advance mechanical debridement as a viable technique, by providing a rapid, safe and easy-to-use method with limited pain for the patient.”
Other experts share this opinion and go even further. Results are particularly positive for the issues of biofilm and cost-efficiency. During the L&R Symposium “Debridement - an integrated part of wound management”, Professor Renato Pietroletti, L'Aquila/Italy, emphasized the benefits of Debrisoft® as follows: “The new pad for debridement [Debrisoft®], made by polyester fibers, is a very fast, effective and safe method to debride, achieving the result with reduction of costs. [...] In addition, our preliminary data suggests that polyester fibers of the pad might help to remove bacteria from the infected wound – optimizing the antibiotic treatment.” In her lecture, Christina Lindholm, Stockholm/Sweden, underlined the importance of appropriate debridement: “Against the background of the growing body of evidence for biofilm formation in many chronic wounds, the importance of debridement has become an urgent subject as part of modern wound management.” The successful application of Debrisoft® in the homecare and outpatient setting was presented by Karsten Fogh, Aarhus/Denmark.
Intact and newly formed tissue is spared
Debrisoft® enables rapid and virtually painless debridement of the wound bed; skin cells and keratosis are also effectively removed from the surrounding skin. Debris, exudate, necrotic tissue and keratosis are detached, while newly formed granulation tissue and undamaged epithelial tissue are spared.(4) The wound healing process occurring in leg ulcers, pressure ulcers or wounds healing postoperatively by secondary intention for example (5) is promoted by application of Debrisoft®, practice workload is facilitated and the virtually painless treatment can improve the patient’s quality of life.
High-tech polyester fibres actively loosen and firmly retain coatings
The unique ACTITOP fibre technology involving 18 million soft fibres with bevelled fibre tips combined in an area 10 x 10 cm in size makes gentle yet effective application possible. After the wound has been moistened with a conventional rinsing solution, the pad is applied by exerting gentle pressure. The fibres in the pad penetrate the depths of the wound so that the bevelled fibre tips can actively detach debris and exudate from the wound, remove keratosis on the surrounding skin and retain the detached coatings firmly.(4) This procedure reduces the bacterial stress of the wound environment to prevent secondary infection. Depending on the wound situation, the procedures lasts about two to four minutes6 or two to twelve minutes (2),(7) and is generally virtually painless for patients.
Debrisoft® comes out on top by comparison
During the debridement of a wound, the treating physician may have recourse to a variety of debridement methods, depending on the indication and wound situation, including Debrisoft® as a method of mechanical debridement. Debrisoft® met the decisive criteria, such as little work, short treatment duration, effectiveness and virtually painless application: In a clinical, multicentre and international observational study, Debrisoft® was rated good to excellent with regard to performance, tolerability, user satisfaction and safety in daily practice. (2)
L&R offers comprehensive therapy solutions for wound management
Debrisoft® offers a rapid, effective and easy to use alternative to the well-known debridement procedures. Thus L&R supplies a complete therapy concept for the treatment of leg ulcers for example. As part of the total management of leg ulcer patients, the sequential combined application of Debrisoft® for gentle debridement with moist wound care dressings (Suprasorb®, Vliwasorb®) and with the Rosidal® compression products represents a well-rounded therapy concept for phase-appropriate wound care.
References
1) European Wound Management Association (EWMA). Position Document: Wound Bed Preparation in Practice. London: MEP Ltd, 2004.
2) Bahr, S., Mustafi, N., Hättig, P. et al. Clinical efficacy of a new monofilament fibre-containing wound debride-ment product. Journal of Wound Care (2011) 20(5): 242 - 248.
3) European Wound Management Association (EWMA). Position Document: Debridement. In: Journal of Wound Care, London, 2013.
4) Hämmerle G., Duelli H., Abel M. et al. The wound de-brider: a new monofilament fibre technology. British Journal Nursing (2011) 20(6): S 35 - S 42.
5) Vowden K., Vouwden, P. Debrisoft: Revolutionising de-bridement. Br J Nurs. 2011: 20:20 (Suppl.), S 1 - S 16.
6) Dam, W., Winther, C., Rasmussen, G.S., Methods for cleaning and debridement of wounds - experiences with Debrisoft. SAR, 2011: 19: 182 - 184.
7) Gray, D., Acton, C., Chadwick, P., et al. Consensus guidance for the use of debridement techniques in the UK. Wounds UK. 2011; 7:77-84.
Further information on Lohmann & Rauscher (L&R) can be found at: www.lohmann-rauscher.com
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