Case Study: Skin Tear on a 90 Year Old Woman
A 90-year-old female patient who was relatively mobile and in general good health had a skin tear. She uses medication for her lungs and aerosol inhalers to dilate the lungs. The patient also uses homeopathic products and steroids for general health improvement.
She weighed approximately 56 kg and had a small posture. The patient also had fragile skin. She managed some of the works in and around the house herself but she had limited sight, therefore she kept bumping into objects in the house.
The patient tore the skin loose on the side of her leg. The nurse removed the remaining part. The wound was cleansed with saline, after which the wound was dried with an absorbing gauze. A thin layer of L-Mesitran Soft was applied and covered with a non-adhering dressing. The wound was treated daily by the nurse. The L-Mesitran Soft was chosen because of its ability to create a moist wound environment and debride the wound quickly.
The pictures show that after 18 days the wound was clean and a granulating wound bed was facilitated. After 4 weeks, the wound was healed. The patient did not experience any pain during dressing changes. Moreover, the dressings did not tear the fragile skin and due to the Soft gel, the dressing did not adhere to the wound.
The skin tear was successfully treated in four weeks with L-Mesitran Soft. The challenge was not to damage the periwound area and prevent infection. L-Mesitran Soft gel made sure the covering dressings did not adhere to the wound, facilitated a moist wound environment, quickly debrided the wound and epithelialized the wound. No pain or adverse effects were reported.