Managing wound pain during application and removal of dressings

Wound pain is a common experience in patients with acute and chronic wounds, and also post healing in some cases, with scars (Stavrou et al, 2009). This pain can cause patients considerable suffering and distress, and patients identify that wound pain is an important part of their experience, for example during dressing removal, wound cleansing or debridement. They frequently identify pain management as their most important priority, over and above achieving wound healing. Pain-free dressing removal was also ranked the most highly desired characteristic of a dressing in a survey of 3918 clinicians across 11 countries (Moffatt et al, 2002).