Descriptive study of the frequency of medical adhesive–related skin injuries in a vascular clinic

Abstract

A medical adhesive can be defined as a product used to secure a device (ie, tape, dressing, catheter, electrode, and ostomy pouch) to the skin. Skin injury related to medical adhesive usage occurs across all care settings with medical adhesive-related skin injuries (MARSIs) playing a significant role with patient safety. The purpose of this descriptive prospective study was to assess all adult patients with wounds seen in the vascular clinic for MARSI by the CWOCN NP over a 3-month time period. One hundred twenty patients comprising a total of 207 visits were seen by the CWOCN NP over the 3-month time frame. Seven patients presented to the clinic from home with MARSI for a frequency of 5.8%. There were four males and three females with ages ranging from 52 to 83 years with a mean age of 67.7years. All patients had a diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease with MARSI present on the lower extremities. Six of the seven MARSI cases were related to having paper tape removed from the periwound skin at home resulting in epidermal stripping either by the home health care professional (N=4) or by the patient themselves (N=2). The other MARSI was related to tension blister from steri-strips applied with benzoin by health care professional on a lower leg incision. Patients were unclear as far as when these injuries had occurred and often remarked that they thought that tape injuries were unpreventable. There is a need for additional research studies examining MARSI frequency across care settings such as the vascular population to identify those at risk and then implement measures to prevent it.