Wound Dressings: A Comprehensive Review

Purpose of Review: This comprehensive review covers the advantage and limitations of some dressing materials and the current knowledge on wound dressings and emerging technologies to achieve proper wound healing. Recent Findings: Traditional and modern dressings are helpful in the wound healing process; however, they cannot substitute lost tissue. Human skin equivalents have been developed conceptually to fill this void as they do not only facilitate wound healing but also may replace lost tissue. Several studies have shown that the addition of mesenchymal stem cells, such as in human placenta, has promising results in wound healing. Summary: A wound is defined as a disruption in the continuity of the skin or mucosa due to physical or thermal damage, or an underlying medical condition. Wound healing is a complex, dynamic, and multistep process which occurs after skin damage leading to tissue repair. Although the skin normally undergoes repair after a disruption, the healing process can be affected in different conditions such as diabetes mellitus, infections, venous/arterial insufficiency, among others. To enhance healing, a wide range of wound dressings are available; however, a thorough wound assessment (e.g., wound type, size, depth, or color) is required to choose the appropriate dressing. The emergence of new dressings has brought a new perspective of wound healing, but there is no superior product yet to treat acute and/or chronic wounds. Therefore, wound dressing research studies need to be carried out in order to help improve wound healing.