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Fluid Handling Dynamics and Durability of Silver-Containing Gelling Fiber Dressings Tested in a Robotic Wound System
Aleksei Orlov1, Adi Lustig, Angela Grigatti
1At Tel Aviv University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel, Aleksei Orlov, MSc; Adi Lustig, MSc; and Angela Grigatti, MSc, are Graduate Students at the research group of Professor Gefen; and Amit Gefen, PhD, is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Herbert J. Berman Chair in Vascular Bioengineering. Acknowledgment: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 811965; project STINTS (Skin Tissue Integrity under Shear). This work was also partially supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science & Technology (Medical Devices Program grant no. 3-17421, awarded to Prof Amit Gefen in 2020) and by Mölnlycke Health Care (Gothenburg, Sweden). The authors thank Ms Orel Belo, the Laboratory Engineer at the Gefen Laboratory, for supporting the experimental work. The authors have disclosed no other financial relationships related to this article. Submitted July 23, 2021; accepted in revised form November 1, 2021; published online ahead of print March 14, 2022.
Objective:
To develop a robotic phantom system containing multiple simulated wound replicates to determine the synergy in fluid absorbency and retention (sorptivity) performances and the post-simulated-use mechanical durability of silver-containing gelling fiber primary dressings when used with a secondary dressing, as per clinical practice.
Methods:
Using a robotic system containing six identical wound simulators, the authors tested the sorptivity performances of the Exufiber Ag + (Mölnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden) primary dressing (ExAg-polyvinyl alcohol [PVA]) against a market-leading comparator product, when used with a secondary foam dressing. The durability of the primary dressings after simulated use was further investigated through tensile mechanical testing.
Results:
The ExAg-PVA primary dressing delivered greater fluid amounts for absorbency and retention by the secondary foam dressing, approximately 2- and 1.5-fold more than the comparator dressing pair after 10 and 15 hours, respectively. The ExAg-PVA dressing was also substantially less sensitive to the direction of pulling forces and, accordingly, exhibited post-use mechanical strength that was approximately four and six times greater than that of the other primary dressing (when the latter dressing was tested out-of-alignment with its visible seams) after 10 and 15 hours, respectively.
Conclusions:
The dynamics of the sorptivity and fluid sharing between primary and secondary dressings and the effect of directional preference of strength of the primary dressings for adequate durability, resulting in safe post-use removals, have been described. The comparative quantification of these capabilities should help clinical and nonclinical decision-makers select dressings that best meet their patient needs.
