Adhesive bandage
Adhesive bandages are a popular and widely used form of dressing to protect relatively small or minor skin wounds and blemishes. Adhesive bandages come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are used to cover and protect wounds such as cuts, abrasions, punctures, and other forms of wounds inflicted on human tissue such as the skin of the arms, legs, hands, and other parts of the human body. Adhesive bandages protect skin wounds from dirt and other contaminants that may cause infection. Furthermore, adhesive bandages protect the wound area from reinjury, thereby promoting the rapid healing of the wound. Adhesive bandages generally comprise an elongated strip of cloth or plastic backing material coated on one surface with a pressure sensitive adhesive. A gauze or sponge pad is secured to the adhesive surface in a central location to serve as the wound cover. The wound facing surface of the pad may be plastic-coated or otherwise treated to prevent the pad from adhering to the wound. Plastic-coated release strips are placed over the adhesive areas and the entire assembly is placed in a sealed package and sterilized to be ready for use. Adhesive bandage pads provide a protective cover for a wound, while isolating the wound from the adhesive used to fasten the bandage to the skin. One type of bandage has a continuous narrow strip of pad material placed transversely across the center of a continuous strip of adhesive backing, and the pad and backing material is then cut along the width of the adhesive backing. This method produces a bandage with a pad that extends to the edges of the adhesive backing. This type of pad is known as a full width pad. Adhesive bandages consist of a sterilized pad centrally mounted on a relatively larger adhesive strip, such that a portion of the adhesive strip protrudes past the sterilized pad on two or more sides to form wings. When the sterilized pad is placed over a minor injury, such as a cut, the protruding wings of the adhesive strip adheres to the skin to maintain the sterile pad in position.
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