New Facile Testing Protocols to Assess Conformability of Advanced Dressings for Wound Healing

Conformability of advanced dressings is a key parameter to evaluate their ability to adapt to the complex shape of the wound, which promotes its healing and prevents the formation of gaps at the wound interface, which, in turn, may favour microbial proliferation. However, conformability is normally measured by evaluating the mechanical properties of dressings and frequently under dry conditions, failing to evaluate the behaviour in clinical conditions, where the wound is normally characterized by large volumes of exudate. New methods are under study for its evaluation, but they generally require complex experimental procedures or specialized equipment. Here, we validate a simple and inexpensive method proposed for conformability characterization by testing its application to a variety of dressings, differing in composition and type of absorbing layer. We test the impact of different volumes of exudate-simulating solution and the impact of dressing size on the results. In addition, we implement the test by simultaneously evaluating other parameters (time of absorption, lateral spreading of the solution) that impact wound healing. Finally, we validate the test by demonstrating its capability to predict adaptability of complex wound shapes in specifically developed wound-mimicking models. Our results show that the test can be applied to all tested dressings, successfully highlighting differences in conformability and demonstrating high reproducibility. We demonstrate that conformability can largely vary between different dressings but is not affected by either dressing size or exudate volume, whereas lateral spreading and time of absorption can be significantly affected by both parameters. Finally, we demonstrate that the tests succeed in predicting adaptability to wounds of complex shape in tissue models; hence it is suitable for a simple and cost-effective measure of conformability.