Editing Nursing Skills and Procedures (section)

=== Dressing types and matching ===
* Gauze: inexpensive, useful for packing, requires frequent change, does not maintain moisture well.
* Transparent film such as Tegaderm: for stage 1 injuries, superficial wounds, and intravenous sites. Allows visualization and gas exchange. Not absorbent, so do not use on heavily draining wounds.
* Hydrocolloid such as DuoDERM: occlusive, keeps the wound moist, promotes autolytic debridement, used on clean stage 2 and shallow stage 3 wounds. Produces a normal odorous gel that students often mistake for infection. Not for infected wounds.
* Hydrogel: donates moisture to dry wounds, soothing, used on dry sloughy or painful wounds.
* Alginate: highly absorbent, derived from seaweed, for heavily exudating wounds, requires a secondary cover dressing.
* Foam: absorbent and cushioning, common for moderate exudate and for prophylactic sacral protection.

The governing principle is moisture balance: keep the wound bed moist and the surrounding intact skin dry. Wet-to-dry gauze performs nonselective mechanical debridement, damages new granulation tissue, and is painful. It is no longer recommended as routine care and should be questioned when ordered for a clean granulating wound.