Review of methods used for quantifying excess water in over-hydrated skin using evaporimetry

Abstract

Little work has been carried out to establish the optimum methods and techniques needed to minimise variation in measurements of WVFD using evaporimetery. There is a need to develop more robust, standardised methods and to demonstrate their reliability for further work.

An experimental study of friction between volar forearm skin and nonwoven fabrics used in disposable absorbent products for incontinence

“…Although TEWL figures varied from 0.74 to 4.32 gm 22 h 21 , all the recorded values were small compared with the 80 gm 22 h 21 or so associated with fully overhydrated skin. 34 Finally, substantial lateral contraction in fabric strips -or rucking in the skin beneath them -did not notably affect the form of tensometer curves, either.…”

Continence products: Research priorities to improve the lives of people with urinary and/or fecal leakage

“…For example, in recent years some progress has been made on understanding the formation of biofilms on different catheter materials under different conditions such as the pH and microbial content of the urine, 5,6 and the interactions between pad materials and skin. 7,8 However, there is still some way to go: current catheters commonly block and pads frequently cause skin damage.…”

Development and preliminary testing of a standardized method for quantifying excess water in over-hydrated skin using evaporimetry

“…Patch wear times between 20 and 120 min have been reported for WVFD measurements in laboratory studies on over-hydrated skin (Fader et al 2010). To investigate this issue WVFD traces from the same skin site on the same volunteers using the same fully saturated patches were measured for patch wear times between 5 and 60 min.…”

“…However, evaporimetry devices are widely available and provide quantitative data which are, in principle, straight-forward to interpret. Nevertheless, a recent review of the literature (Fader et al 2010) has shown that a wide range of evaporimetry methodologies have been used, making it difficult to compare data from different studies. In addition, little work has been done to establish the repeatability of any methodology and so it is difficult to interpret data with confidence.…”

“…However, because it can take a considerable time to capture drying curves, most published studies have used simpler surrogate measures of over-hydration, such as the mean WVFD reading over the first 2 min after occlusion is removed. Fader et al (2010) have provided a critical review of such surrogate measures and concluded that none of them is reliable: the area under the curve is needed.…”