The properties of the "ideal" donor site dressing: results of a worldwide online survey

Abstract

Split skin grafting is a widely used technique for reconstructing skin defects. Although a vast number of different coverage options for donor sites have become available in daily clinical practice, no optimum dressing material has been found to date. For this reason, we conducted a globally-distributed online survey to poll for the properties of such an "ideal" donor site dressing, possibly leading to an improved clinically-driven direction of future wound dressing developments. A total of 69 respondents from 34 countries took part in the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 13.8% (69/500) over a 1-month period. The majority of respondents rated the characteristics of an "ideal" donor site dressing to be either "essential" or "desirable" as follows: lack of adhesion to the wound bed ("essential": 31/69, 44.9%; "desirable": 30/69, 43.5%); pain-free dressing changes ("essential": 38/69, 55.1%; "desirable": 30/69, 43.5%); absorbency ("essential": 27/69, 39.1%; "desirable": 33/69, 47.8%); ease of removal ("essential": 37/69, 53.6%; "desirable": 27/69, 39.13%). With regard to the desired frequency of dressing changes, respondents preferred "no dressing change until the donor site has healed" (51/69, 73.9%) in the majority of cases, followed by "twice weekly" (10/69, 14.5%), "alternate days" (5/69, 7.2%) and "daily" (3/69, 4.3%). With regard to the design of the dressing material, the majority of participants preferred a one-piece (composite) dressing product (44/69, 63.8%). The majority of respondents also denied the current availability of an "ideal" donor site dressing (49/69, 71%). The strength of this study was the remarkable geographic distribution of responses; all parts of the world were included and participated. We believe that this globally conducted online survey has polled for the properties of the "ideal" donor site dressing and possibly will lead to an improved clinically-driven direction of future wound dressing development.

Keywords: donor site; dressing; internet; online; survey.

Figures

Table I. List of participating countries in alphabetic order

Fig. 1. Map of participating countries in black (34 countries worldwide)

Fig. 2. Responses to the question: How important are pain-free dressing changes?

Fig. 3. Responses to the question: How important is ease of removal?

Fig. 4. Responses to the question: How important are different dressing sizes?

Fig. 5. Responses to the question: How important is reduction of blood loss?

Fig. 6. Responses to the question: How important is antimicrobial activity?

Fig. 7. Responses to the question: Ideally, how often should the dressing be changed?