The Science of Skin: Measuring Damage and Assessing Risk

Abstract

Significance: Healthy skin provides a barrier to contaminants. Breaches in skin integrity are often encountered in the patient health care journey, owing to intrinsic health issues or to various procedures and medical devices used. The time has come to move clinical practice beyond mere awareness of medical adhesive-related skin injury and toward improved care and outcomes. Recent Advances: Methods developed in research settings allow quantitative assessments of skin damage based on the measurement of baseline skin properties. These properties become altered by stress and over time. Assessment methods typically used by the cosmetic industry to compare product performance could offer new possibilities to improve clinical practice by providing better information on the status of patient skin. This review summarizes available skin assessment methods as well as specific patient risks for skin damage. Critical Issues: Patients in health care settings may be at risk for skin damage owing to predisposing medical conditions, health status, medications taken, and procedures or devices used in their treatment. Skin injuries come as an additional burden to these medical circumstances and could be prevented. Technology should be leveraged to improve care, help maintain patient skin health, and better characterize functional wound closure. Future Directions: Skin testing methods developed to evaluate cosmetic products or assess damage caused by occupational exposure can provide detailed, quantitative information on the integrity of skin. Such methods have the potential to guide prevention and treatment efforts to improve the care of patients suffering from skin integrity issues while in the health care system.

Color changing bioadhesive barrier for peripherally inserted central catheters

“…48 One of the clinical uncertainties that impede prevention of allergic reactions is that manufacturers are allowed to withhold the chemical composition. 48,49…”

“…48 One of the clinical uncertainties that impede prevention of allergic reactions is that manufacturers are allowed to withhold the chemical composition. 48,49 Previous work on carbene-based bioadhesives display no evidence of genotoxic and skin sensitization upon leachate exposure. 24 With addition of BTB indicator, the results are still negative for genotoxicity and skin sensitization, as measured by OECD-regulated tests.…”

Safety of Prolonged Exposure of Human Skin to Aqueous Ozone in a Test Hand Hygiene Model

“…19 While optical density is the gold standard to measure viability in this study, new and evolving quantitative methods may be more accurate. 20 Finally, the potential influence of penicillin/streptomycin added to the 40-hour exposure groups on the findings should be considered. However, cell culture testing supports this approach, and we are unaware of any potential for interaction with the assay.…”

Nurses' knowledge, attitude and behaviour on medical adhesive related skin injury in neonatal department: A survey

“…Before using the adhesive, the liquid dressing can form a protective layer between the adhesive and the skin after drying. When removing the adhesive product, the protective layer is removed instead of the skin keratinocytes, thus reducing the damage to the skin cuticle (Bernatchez & Bichel, 2022).…”