Wound management: the occlusive dressing

Superficial wounds resulting from athletic injury are common in sports medicine. Although such wounds can be quite painful, they are usually merely inconvenient to the athlete. If improperly managed, however, superficial wounds may heal slowly and cause unnecessary scar tissue proliferation at the wound site. Scar formation causes the wound to break open frequently and puts the athlete at risk of cross-contamination by pathogenic organisms. New advances in the science of wound management strongly favor the use of occlusive dressings to increase patient comfort, increase patient compliance, decrease the risk of infection, and decrease overall healing time. Occlusion has clearly been proven to aid in the healing of superficial wounds and should be considered as a treatment alternative for wounds in the sports medicine setting. In this paper, I discuss three of the most widely used types of occlusive dressings: 1) films, 2) hydrogels, and 3) hydrocolloids.