The fast of Ramadan.

they thought would be delivering only average compression at the ankle.A need clearly exists to ensure that prescribable bandages meet acceptable standards of manufacture and specified performance in terms of elasticity, elastic range, elastic modulus, and durability.Would it not be simpler to lay down these criteria and classify bandages according to some measure of elasticity and elastic modulus?The manufacturer could mark the bandage to ensure consistent application and could supply a chart with each bandage indicating the compression that would be achieved with a two layer or three layer overlap for different sizes of ankle.This would allow the doctor to build up a multilayer bandage to meet the needs of each patient.Such a bandage would be safer than a single layer of high compression, as errors in the application of a weaker bandage would average out in multiple layers -thereby reducing the risk of pressure necrosis.Simpler prescribing would be possible as a doctor need prescribe only a bandage capable of applying a given pressure to a measured ankle, and the pharmacist could dispense the most economical product meeting that specification.Many surgical appliances, dressings, and bandages have been recognised in the drug tariff and have achieved a lucrative place in the market without having been subjected to adequate clinical trials.3This would be unacceptable in the pharmaceutical industry, where drug regulators insist on clinical efficacy.Surely this must be the goal for dressings and bandages and might be achieved if an advisory committee similar to the Committee on Safety of Medicines was set up.