Long-term adhesives: Patients have skin in the game

[Image courtesy of mbbradford on Wikimedia with Creative Commons]

Patients and caregivers have been looking for an option for long-term adhesives. Users of infusion pumps, colostomy bags, cardiac monitors, glucose monitors, health monitors and other devices worn on the skin have long complained that the adhesives used are not good enough.

Long-term adhesives, however, have issues with lift (where part of the adhesive loses stick), pain at removal, and skin condition under the adhesive, says Diana Eitzman, senior laboratory manager at 3M. Further, the needs of patients at age spectrums (very old or very young) are different. They have more tender, fragile skin. For example, at about age 55 the epidermis thins, and skin loses hyaluronic acid, which makes it stiffer.

With such patient needs in mind, Eitzman, along with 3M’s Medical Materials Technology within the Critical and Chronic Care Solutions Division set out to discover all she could about how skin might react after 7 days, 14 days, and perhaps eventually, even longer.

Get the whole story at Medical Design and Outsourcing.

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