New Tie-over Dressing Method Using Hooks and Rubber Bands

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Though its general usage, traditional tie-over dressing using suture has a few drawbacks such as difficulty in re-fixation after its opening especially when hematoma or seroma has occurred. It is rather difficult to maintain a stable dressing on curvy parts of body like flank, buttocks and that leads to unsatisfactory results of the surgery. Authors recommend a quick and repeatedly doable method, tie-over dressing that incorporates the usage of hooks and rubber bands. METHODS: Debridement was done at a recipient site to be able to do skin graft. A right size of skin graft was prepared and placed upon the defect site with suture. Enough number of hooks were attached using Blue nylon at the normal skin of the edge of grafted area. We Applied dressing with ointment and fluffy gauze then fixed the dressing by attaching a rubber band at the hook to give a certain amount of tension. One or two days after the surgery, we opened the tie-over dressing and repeated the tie-over dressing by reusing the hooks and rubber band. RESULTS: The skin grafts were all successfully taken and by repeating tie-over dressing using hooks and rubber, we could take the advantage of shortened the dressing time and eliminate the inconvenience of the patient and the surgeon by using bandages and fixing tapes. CONCLUSION: The advantage of tie over dressing using hooks and rubber bsnds are its easy re-doability early detection of probable complications, preventability of reoccurence of hematoma and seroma. Therefore, authors report this as considering the tie-over dressing using hooks and rubber bands is recommendable.