Skin Tear

Causes:

• occurs when friction and shearing forces cause tissue layers to slide across each other breaking blood vessels.
  
  
• examples of actions that can result in fragile tissue being abraided:
  
  • sliding patients in bed
  • aggravated patients moving in bed
  • removal of adhesive dressings

Goals of treatment:

• to protect skin from further damage
• heal the wound

Things to keep in mind:

• patient's skin condition
• potential for further skin tears
• nurses must be mindful of transparent film on fragile and dehydrated skin. If you need to use transparent film, remember to remove using the "lateral pull" method.
• minimize use of tape and adhesive products
• avoid more friction and shear
• maximize nutrition and hydration

Suggested treatment*:

• Mepitel would be the suggested dressing* for this wound
• Place Mepitel directly on the wound bed and cover with dry gauze (abd pad if necessary for comfort)and kling or burn net
• Change gauze when saturated and change Mepitel every 5-7 days
• Mepitel is an inert, silicone based dressing that can stay in place for 7 days (the cover dressing can be changed if soiled)
• This is an ideal alternative to Sofratulle
  

* All suggested treatments and dressings in this web site were evidence based choices by the authors and by no means represent the only dressing option available.