OCCLUSIVE DRESSINGS - THERAPEUTIC AGENTS AND EFFECTS ON DRUG DELIVERY

Dressings have been applied to wounds and skin for diverse purposes throughout the centuries. In 1500 B.C., the Egyptians spread honey and ibex grease on an open-weave papyrus bandage, after packing with extra-absorbent lint for exudative wounds.1 As time passed, a variety of imaginative measures2 were applied to healing wounds, with the result that repair often occurred in spite of the dressings rather than because of them. Controlled studies were rare, so scientific knowledge about the effect of dressings on healing and the skin progressed little from the ancient Egyptians to the 19th century. The increasing scientific study of dressings in the 20th century, combined with new tools to measure various aspects of dressing performance and wound healing, spawned a growing awareness of the role of dressings as barriers in healing, debridement, sequestering of growth factors, drug delivery, and infection control and as skin replacements. Current knowledge of each of these areas is reviewed. © 1991.