Management of Moisture-Associated Skin Damage: A Scoping Review.
Kevin Y Woo, Dimitri Beeckman, Debashish Chakravarthy
PMID 29049257WHAT IT FOUND
No single skin barrier product is proven superior to others.
Success depends on the formulation and application frequency. Solvent-free polymer films and cyanoacrylates show promise in preventing skin stripping and irritation, but evidence remains limited and heterogeneous.
Key findings
01There is no evidence that one barrier or protectant product is better than any other; performance depends on formulation and application frequency rather than the principal ingredient.
02Solvent-free polymer film barriers provided significantly greater protection against skin trauma and erythema than solvent-containing formulations, which offered no more protection than no treatment.
03Cyanoacrylate barriers form a flexible film within seconds and remain on the skin for 24 to 72 hours, resisting removal by washing or body fluids.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a scoping review, not a systematic review, so it did not critically appraise the quality of the included studies. This means the strength of the evidence for each intervention is not clearly graded. The number of studies for some conditions was very small (e.g., only 2 for peristomal MASD, 5 miscellaneous). Key trials cited, such as the solvent-free polymer film study, had very small sample sizes (e.g., 12 subjects). There is no validated measurement scale for intertriginous dermatitis or standardized tools for periwound skin damage, limiting consistent assessment across studies. The review included studies up to July 2015, so newer products or evidence may not be represented.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the preference for solvent-free barriers or cyanoacrylates as strong evidence of superiority. These findings come from small studies and a scoping review that did not appraise study quality. The review explicitly states there is no evidence that one barrier product is better than another overall.