The efficiency of wound dressing materials as a barrier to secondary bacterial contamination

Summary A performance type of laboratory test has been developed to determine the efficiency of the absorbent surgical materials as a barrier to secondary contamination by pathogenic organisms from the patient's environment. The test was used to determine the efficiency of the currently available surgical dressing materials and showed that under variable clinical conditions, a dressing composed of layers of absorbent B.P.C. gauze would give a more reliable protection than similar thickness of hospital cotton wool or bleached wood pulp. This property of absorbent material has been defined as the volume of fluid which is accommodated by a given thickness of absorbent material at the point of strike-through of fluid to the outer surface of the dressings applied to wounds. The effects of material and clinical variables on the efficiency of the absorbent dressing materials were considered on the basis of the capillary theory of absorption of fluid by the dry porous materials.