Alginate Wound Dressings

These non woven non adhesive dressings are highly absorbent soft and conformable.

Alginate wound dressings.

These dressings are made primarily of seaweed derivatives and the fibers are spun into ropes or sheets. Alginate dressings are highly absorbent and suitable for use on exuding wounds and for the promotion of autolytic debridement of debris in very moist wounds. An alginate dressing is a natural wound dressing derived from carbohydrate sources released by clinical bacterial species in the same manner as biofilm formation. What is an alginate dressing.

They can also be used on dry wounds when combined with a sterile saline solution. Alginate dressings are made from natural polysaccharide fibers that are derived from processed seaweed. An alginate wound dressing contains sodium and calcium derived from seaweed and come in the form of flat dressings. They are easy to pack tuck or apply over wounds of irregular shapes.

As the alginate absorbs fluid it is converted to a gel that provides moisture to the wound bed. They come in the form of flat dressings that can be placed over open ulcers and rope dressings that are used for packing the wound which absorb fluids and promote healing with pressure ulcers diabetic foot ulcers or venous ulcers. Alginate fibres trapped in a wound are readily biodegraded. These types of dressings are best used on wounds that have a large amount of exudate.

This type of dressing is used for dermal wounds that produce exudate meaning that they ooze bodily fluids such as blood plasma mucus or pus. Alginates can be rinsed away with saline irrigation so removal of the dressing does not interfere with healing granulation tissue. Alginate dressings also act as a haemostatic but caution is needed because blood clots can cause the dressing to adhere to the wound surface. Biodegradable alginate dressings made from seaweed date back at least fifty years and commercially available alginate has been available since 1983.

Alginate dressings are non occlusive to semi occlusive highly absorbent and made to manage moderate to large amounts of exudate figure 21 5. Calcium alginate dressings are a strong versatile and natural wound care dressing typically applied to diabetic wounds venous wounds full thickness burns split thickness graft donor sites pressure ulcers cavity wounds and chronic ulcers. A calcium alginate dressing is a topical wound dressing made with the ingredient alginate also called algin which is a highly absorbent substance that is extracted from the cell walls of brown seaweed. Often used on wounds with heavy exudate the alginates used to produce these dressings are made from a variety of seaweeds harvested around the world.