Babies born with serious
medical conditions often spend their first days in the hospital’s
intensive-care unit. Covered in sticky medical tape used to anchor IV tubes,
catheters or electronic monitors, the newborns, experts say, can be subject to
painful and even dangerous removal and reapplication adhesive materials.
According to Jeff Karp,
co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston, damage to the delicate
skin of sick newborns is one of the leading problems facing neonatal intensive
care units.
“Children in these units are
just wrapped in these tapes, [which are] constantly needing to be
replaced," he says.
Because the devices securced
by adhesive tape are essential to medical monitoring, Karp and his colleagues
set about making a better adhesive, one that has all the holding power of
conventional tape but that can be pulled off without causing harm to delicate
skin.
“There’s all sorts of horror
stories of permanent damage being done, as well as tissue torn from the skin;
even ears being torn," says Karp, explaining that normal medical tape has
two layers — a non-sticky backing and the sticky film that adheres to the skin.
The new tape adds a third
complete layer of adhesive that remains on the skin after the other layers of
tape are removed.
“What we found is that when
you have a continuous layer of adhesive that’s left, as what’s done with our
system, [the remaining] adhesive can just roll off the skin and be less painful
and much quicker to remove,” he says.
The new, gentler adhesive
tape will also be helpful with elderly patients, whose thin, delicate skin can
be prone to tearing.
Made from materials already
in wide use, Karp believes the improved tape will get prompt regulatory
approval and soon be available to hospitals and clinics.
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