Vented wound dressing

A wound dressing comprising:

• a primary dressing for placement on skin to cover a wound, the primary dressing comprising a thin, conformable, vapor-permeable, liquid-impermeable sheet material having a generally centrally disposed wound-covering portion for placement directly over the wound and a peripheral portion defining the wound-covering portion and which is intended to be secured in fluid-tight relationship to whole skin surrounding the wound, the sheet material having a coating of a pressure-sensitive adhesive extending substantially over one surface thereof for adhering the dressing over the wound, the adhesive coating being applied so as to provide repeating areas of no adhesive in the wound-covering and peripheral portions of the dressing, the repeating areas of no adhesive in the wound-covering portion of the sheet material having slits extending through its thickness to permit venting of wound fluids therethrough unimpeded by a presence of adhesive material which can clog the slits and thereby inhibit fluid transfer therethrough, each of the slits having smaller dimensions than the repeating areas of the sheet material containing no adhesive whereby each slit occupies only a portion of the area containing no adhesive in which the slit is contained, the slits being of a size and number such as to retain sufficient moisture to provide a moist healing wound dressing;
• repeating areas of no adhesive in the peripheral portions being slit-free whereby passage of wound fluids therethrough is precluded, the repeating areas of the vapor-permeable sheet material in the peripheral portions permitting vapor transmission from skin whereby to inhibit maceration of skin underlying the peripheral portion of the dressing;
• and
• a secondary dressing overlying the primary dressing containing a reservoir for receiving and retaining wound fluids diffusing thereto through the slits in the underlying primary dressing, the secondary dressing being releasably secured to the primary dressing so as to be removable for replacement by another secondary dressing on an as needed basis.

A vented dressing comprising a thin, conformable vapor-permeable, liquid-impermeable sheet material having a generally centrally disposed wound-covering surface area portion for placement over a wound and a peripheral surface area portion defining the wound-covering surface area portion and which is intended to be secured in fluid-tight relationship to whole skin surrounding a wound, the sheet material having a coating of a pressure-sensitive adhesive extending substantially entirely over one surface thereof for adhering the dressing over the wound, the adhesive coating being applied so as to provide repeating surface areas in the wound-covering portion containing no adhesive, the repeating surface areas containing no adhesive being isolated by surface areas containing adhesive to form a dam or barrier inhibiting lateral diffusion of wound fluids, the surface areas of the wound-covering portion of the sheet material where there is no adhesive having slits extending through its thickness to permit venting of fluids through the sheet material unimpeded by a presence of adhesive material which can clog the slits and thereby inhibit fluid transfer therethrough, each of the slits having smaller dimensions than the repeating areas of the sheet material containing no adhesive whereby each slit occupies only a portion of the area containing no adhesive in which the slit is contained, the slits being of a size and number such as to retain sufficient moisture to provide a moist healing wound dressing, only one of the slits being contained in each surface area of no adhesive having a slit;

• and wherein the peripheral portions also have repeating areas of no adhesive isolated by areas containing adhesive, the repeating areas of no adhesive in the peripheral portions being slit-free whereby passage of wound fluids therethrough is precluded, the repeating areas of the vapor-permeable sheet material in the peripheral portions having no adhesive permitting vapor transmission therethrough so as to inhibit maceration of underlying skin.

A wound dressing comprising:

• a primary dressing for placement on a wound to cover a skin surface the primary dressing comprising a thin, conformable, vapor-permeable, liquid-impermeable sheet material having a generally centrally disposed wound-covering portion for placement directly over the wound and a peripheral portion defining the wound-covering portion and which is intended to be secured in fluid-tight relationship to whole skin surrounding the wound, the sheet material having a coating of a pressure-sensitive adhesive extending substantially over one surface thereof for adhering the dressing over the wound, the adhesive coating being applied so as to provide repeating areas of no adhesive in the wound-covering and peripheral portions of the dressing, the repeating areas of no adhesive in the wound-covering portion of the sheet material having slits extending through its thickness to permit venting of wound fluids therethrough unimpeded by the presence of adhesive material which can clog the slits and thereby inhibit fluid transfer therethrough, each of the slits having smaller dimensions than the repeating areas of the sheet material containing no adhesive whereby each slit occupies only a portion of area containing no adhesive in which the slit is contained, the slits being of a size and number such as to retain sufficient moisture to provide a moist healing wound dressing, only one of the slits being contained in each surface area of no adhesive having a slit;
• repeating areas of no adhesive in the peripheral portions being slit-free whereby passage of wound fluids therethrough is precluded, the repeating areas of the vapor-permeable sheet material in the peripheral portions permitting vapor transmission from skin whereby to inhibit maceration of skin underlying the peripheral portion of the dressing;
• and
• a secondary dressing overlying the primary dressing containing a reservoir for receiving and retaining wound fluids diffusing thereto through the slits in the underlying primary dressing, the secondary dressing being releasably secured to the primary dressing so as to be removable for replacement by another secondary dressing on an as needed basis.