Boston researchers have developed a new quick-release medical tape that lessens the “ouch factor” when it is removed from skin.
Existing medical tapes do a fine job keeping medical devices attached to the skin, but often cause pain and can do damage — such as skin tissue tearing — when they’re removed from patients.
But the new tape, invented by a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital, retains the strong adhesion properties of commercial medical tape, but is more easily — and painlessly — removed, lessening the risk of skin damage.
"Current adhesive tapes that contain backing and adhesive layers are tailored to fracture at the adhesive-skin interface. With adults the adhesive fails leaving small remnants of adhesive on the skin while with fragile neonate skin, the fracture is more likely to occur in the skin causing significant damage," said Jeffrey Karp, who helped develop the new tape, in collaboration with The Institute for Pediatric Innovation.
"Our approach transitions the fracture zone away from the skin to the adhesive-backing interface thus completely preventing any harm during removal."
Karp and his colleagues detailed the research that led to the ouch-less medical tape in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This is one of the biggest problems faced in the neonate units, where the patients are helpless and repeatedly wrapped in medical tapes designed for adult skin," said researcher Bryan Laulicht, noting more than 1.5 million injuries each year in the United States are caused by medical tape removal.
Such injuries in babies and the elderly — populations with fragile skin — can range from skin irritation to scarring.