An Independent Evaluation of a New Mesh-Reinforced Silver Rope Dressing

PURPOSE:  Cavity wounds, tunnels and narrow sinus tracts pose special challenges for wound cleansing, pain relief and maintaining an ideally moist wound-healing environment.  This report describes an unsponsored evaluation, in an independent WOCN practice, of a new silver mesh-reinforced rope dressing on nine patients with such wounds.

RATIONALE: The mesh-reinforced rope is a new configuration of an established silver dressing type that has a proven track record of promoting quick healing of wounds, continuously cleansing wounds, inhibiting pain through inhibition of the nociceptor response and absorbing or donating moisture as needed to create an ideal moisture balance.  The rope configuration was designed to be easy to insert and remove for cavities, tunnels and sinus tracts.  

METHODS: The rope dressing was inserted into a tunnel or sinus tract or curled like a cinnamon roll into the base of a slough-filled or painful cavity wound.  A secondary dressing of the same dressing family was used in all but one case, where compression was used over the rope dressing. 

RESULTS:  The rope out-performed even the other configurations of this unique dressing type: pain was dramatically reduced, exudate was managed, slough-filled wounds quickly became clean without manual wound cleansing and clinician visits were decreased to weekly because patients were able to change the dressings themselves.  The rope is easy to insert into long narrow sinus tracts, it remains intact upon removal even when fully saturated and it absorbs large quantities of exudate without much increase in size.  Wounds for which we previously would have used negative pressure therapy were managed more effectively using the new rope.

CONCLUSION:  The new mesh-reinforced silver rope dressing proved to be a versatile choice for a wide variety of patients with varying wound types, providing pain relief, balancing moisture, removing slough and promoting quick closure of cavities and tracts.