Dressings

Four types, four uses

• Island dressings — a sterile pad with an adhesive border, ready to take out of a pouch. Vitri and Svea Medicare come in sizes from 6 × 7 cm up to 10 × 15 cm, also in a waterproof version.
• Film dressings with pad — a transparent film with an absorbent centre. The film is sealed on the outside but lets moisture out from the inside, so the dressing withstands showers and rain. Vitri has eight sizes from 5 × 7 cm to 10 × 30 cm.
• Self-adhering foam dressings — stick to themselves, not to the skin. Snögg Soft Next and Cederroth Soft Foam are made for fingers, where ordinary adhesive tape comes loose straight away, and come in a blue detectable version for food-handling environments. Uni Next and head bandages cover larger areas.
• Absorbent dressings — thicker, for wounds that exude more. Evercare comes both sterile and high-grade clean, in 10 × 10 cm and 10 × 20 cm.

For the medical bag and for the station

A carried kit has no room for bulk. Island dressings and film dressings in single packs belong there, plus a couple of sterile swabs. The workplace station or the vehicle bag has room for bulk packs, gauze bandages and the larger absorbent dressings. The same product is usually available in both formats, so restocking is simple: bulk packs in the store room, single packs out in the kits.

The category also includes items close to acute bleeding care without being trauma supplies: Cederroth 4-in-1 Blood Stopper and AKLA first field dressing are intended for heavier bleeding, and cold packs for sprains and knocks. More heavy-duty equipment is found under trauma and bleeding control and tourniquets.

Goes with

Cleaning first: wound cleansing. If the dressing needs to stay in place without tape sticking to fragile skin — see tape and fixation and bandages. For smaller wounds, plasters are often enough, and as the wound contact layer under the dressing, swabs are used. The whole category: wound care and dressings.