Skin Wound Care and Dressing: What is Amorphous Hydrogel?

Today's advanced skin wound care systems include an array of amorphous hydrogel products.  Treatment with amorphous hydrogel is gaining wide acceptance in the medical community as an effective wound care treatment for exuding skin wounds.  This type of wound care treatment creates an ideal healing environment and can significantly speed healing of even persistent wounds.

Amorphous hydrogel is a topical application for exuding (weeping/oozing) skin wounds. There are two major advantages to using an amorphous hydrogel for skin wound care:

1) Ease of treatment of deeper or uneven wounds: Lacerations and scrapes can be particularly difficult to treat. These wounds are often uneven: borders can be irregular, and the wound as a whole may be deeper and more jagged in some spots, shallower and smoother in others.  A topical dressing alone may not sufficiently or evenly reach all portions of the wound.  Amorphous hydrogel is a gel solution that is applied directly to the wound.  The gel has the ability to seep down into all parts of the wound, including the deeper, rougher parts.  This ensures even coverage of the entire skin wound.

2) Creating a moist environment: Moisture is particularly important for the proper healing of exuding wounds.  Amorphous hydrogel creates and maintains a moist environment that promotes healing.

Its effectiveness can further be enhanced when combining amorphous hydrogel with a hydrocolloid dressing.  Hydrocolloid dressings, such as DuoDerm extra thin, Convatec Aquacel and others contain gel-forming agents, typically composed of sodium carboxymethylcellulose and gelatin.  This substance is highly liquid-retentive and will absorb about four times more exudate than gauze. Skin wound care dressings such as these can be worn considerably longer than gauze dressings.

Wound care products like Convatec Aquacel have the added advantage of containing ionic silver.  Ionic silver has powerful antimicrobial properties.  The inclusion of it in the Convatec Aquacel wound care dressing does not affect the ability of the hydrocolloid to absorb liquid.  It also helps to kill bacteria and other microbes that may come into contact with the wound area and protect the wound, reducing the risk of infection.

Amorphous hydrogel can be used with many skin wound care dressings.  Combining it with a hydrocolloid dressing essentially creates two barriers of protection for a wound instead of just one, further reducing the risk of contamination and/or infection. 

Products such as DuoDerm extra thin do more than add that extra layer of protection.  DuoDerm extra thin is thinner than many other skin wound dressings.  This makes it ideal for use on areas of the body that are awkward to dress (i.e. the under-arm area, backs of the knees) and may be subject to a great deal of movement and flexing.

When using any skin wound care dressing, make sure it's compatible with amorphous hydrogel.  The product label should clearly indicate its suitability for use with such a product.  It's also important to apply the amorphous hydrogel as indicated, and to strictly follow the protocol for applying and removing it and the dressing, as well as the proper schedule for changing the dressings in order to maximize their abilities to heal.