A prospective, non-comparative, clinical in-market assessment of the performance of non-adhesive highly conformable antimicrobial silver barrier dressing

A necessary part of research and product development is testing to determine if initial goals are being met. True in use data is key in meeting the clinicians’ needs. To that end a Clinical In-Market Evaluation, was conducted on a non-adhesive highly conformable antimicrobial silver barrier dressing. The main aim was to confirm that Highly Conformable Antimicrobial Silver Barrier (HCASB) was acceptable to Clinicians for its indicated use and to assess dressing performance, wound parameters and clinician satisfaction throughout the study. Method: 31 Patients were treated in a mixture of treatment settings including hospital, home and wound clinic. Results: In all aspects the clinicans were very happy with the dressing’s performance. There was significant evidence of a reduction in wound area (median 4.1cm², p=0.003) and wound depth (median 1mm, p=0.003) and a reduction in the percentage of patients presenting with clinical signs of infection (26.7% reduction, p=0.005) from baseline to treatment discontinuation. The evaluation dressing was rated as superior or the same as the clinicians’ usual dressings for the majority of patients in all performance parameters. Conclusions: The results show that the dressing can be used as an effective antimicrobial barrier dressing in the treatment of chronic and acute wounds. In particular, the dressing was evaluated as highly conformable and meeting or exceeding expectations as a bacterial barrier. It is hoped that studies of this type will allow for enhanced clinician education, patient safety and prove beneficial to facilities.