Abstract: A wound dressing comprising: a backing sheet; a layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive on the backing sheet; an island of absorbent material having smaller area than the backing sheet and applied onto a central region of the backing sheet so as to leave a margin of adhesive-coated backing sheet around the absorbent material, and an apertured wound facing layer applied over the absorbent material and adhered to the backing sheet around said island by said pressure-sensitive adhesive, wherein the apertured wound facing layer comprises an apertured substrate having a coating of a silicone gel on the wound facing surface thereof, the open area of the apertured wound facing layer is from about 5% to about 75%, and the apertured wound facing layer comprises apertures having an open area of from about 2 mm2 to about 100 mm2.

Abstract: A method of making a wound dressing comprising the steps of: providing an apertured substrate layer; coating the substrate layer with a fluid silicone prepolymer composition; thermally partially curing said silicone prepolymer composition to form a partially cured silicone coating on the substrate; laminating the coated substrate layer to a base layer to form a laminate having said partially cured silicone coating in contact with a surface of the base layer; followed by exposing the laminate to ionizing radiation, to further cure the partially cured silicone coating and to bond the silicone coating to said surface of the base layer. The radiation cure results in strong bonding between the siliconized substrate and incompatible base layers such as polyurethane foams. Also provided are wound dressings obtainable by the process of the invention.

Abstract: A wound dressing product comprising: a substrate layer having an upper surface and a lower surface; a tacky silicone coating composition present on said upper surface and on said lower surface; and upper and lower release sheets covering said substrate and said tacky silicone coating composition on said upper and lower surfaces, respectively, and adhered to said surfaces by said tacky silicone coating composition, wherein said upper surface is less tacky than said lower surface whereby said upper release sheet can be removed from said upper surface more readily than said lower release sheet can be removed from said lower surface. The same silicone composition is used to form both the upper and the lower surface. Also provided are methods for making such dressings.

Abstract: A wound dressing comprising an antimicrobial absorbent layer containing silver, and an apertured sheet covering the antimicrobial absorbent layer, wherein the apertured sheet is formed from a liquid-impermeable sheet material having an array of apertures therein, said apertures having a mean effective diameter of from about 0.5 mm to about 2 mm, and wherein the percentage open area of the apertured sheet is from about 7% to about 25%. The selection of apertures in this range provides enhanced antimicrobial efficacy.