Clinician Satisfaction with a Ceramide Infused Skin Barrier

Introduction: Recent evidence indicates that ceramide infused skin barriers may offer benefits to peristomal skin while retaining the advantages of traditional hydrocolloid barriers¹.

A global evaluation of ceramide infused ostomy skin barriers was conducted involving 184 stoma care nurses enrolling 284 patients from Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  Of the 284 patients evaluated, 33% were colostomates (mean age 63.1 years), 51% were ileostomates (mean age 54.7 years), and 16% were urostomates (mean age 66.6 years).  Eighty-four % of patients were indicated as having been diagnosed with various skin conditions to include acute and chronic irritant dermatitis, product sensitivities, maceration, and fungal rashes.  Stoma care nurses were provided with ceramide infused skin barriers and asked to use the barriers according to their standard of care. 

Objective: Determine clinician satisfaction with a ceramide infused skin barrier.

Results: The nurses expressed satisfaction with the ceramide infused skin barriers for use in the patients they evaluated.  In 88% of patients evaluated the nurses were satisfied or very satisfied with overall performance of the ceramide infused skin barriers.  In 95% of the patients evaluated the nurses were satisfied or very satisfied with ease of use and application of the skin barriers; for the issue of barrier adherence this was 92%; for the issue of ease of removal this was 90%, and wear time 87%. The nurses were asked how likely they would be to continue to use or recommend the ceramide infused skin barrier for the patients evaluated.  Of 269 responses to this question 84% indicated ‘Likely’ or ‘Very likely’.

Conclusions: The analysis of the data indicates an overall favorable response to the use of the ceramide infused skin barriers to the extent that nurses, in general, would continue to use or recommend the ceramide infused skin barriers for their patients.