This stickiness can be eliminated by sprinkling baby powder on it, which will cover it up until the adhesive naturally wears away. In tests on paper, and on other model surfaces, the researchers showed that the tape remains securely in place until you try to rip it off, and then it will quickly detach, leaving most of the adhesive strip behind. “It’s a good example of using materials science and engineering to create new and hopefully better medical products,” Langer says. The PET sticks to the adhesive layer more strongly, so the researchers can control the adhesiveness of the release liner by altering how much of the PET is revealed by the grid lines. The researchers found that adding this layer alone made it too easy for the tape to be pulled off, so they etched grid lines into the silicone with a laser, exposing some of the PET backing. This liner is very similar to the strips of slick paper that you have to peel from a Band-Aid before putting it on your skin. To create the new middle layer, the researchers coated the side that contacts the adhesive with a thin layer of silicone, forming what is called a release liner. The new tape incorporates existing adhesive and backing materials, ensuring that it is still strong and sticky.Ī standard medical tape backing is made of a thin sheet of polymer such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, while they are less damaging to skin, those adhesives don’t hold devices securely enough. Previous efforts have focused on making weaker adhesives.
Medical tape skin#
This quick-release middle layer allows easy removal of the backing, without pulling any skin off. Working with input from clinicians at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and additional funding from the National Institutes of Health, the research team came up with a new tape that incorporates a third layer, sandwiched between the adhesive and the backing. Like most other tape, medical tape has an adhesive side, which sticks to the skin, and a backing, which is non-sticky and gives the tape its strength and resistance to being pulled off. Using research funding from Children’s Medical Ventures, a subsidiary of Philips, the IPI asked the researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s to work on a new design for easily removable tape. Some end up with months of aftercare for lesions on their skin due to the tape.” “It’s very painful, obviously, and it scars them. “When you take the tape off, you take the skin off,” says Don Lombardi, CEO of the IPI. One of the biggest problems, according to the clinicians, was injury caused by adhesives when medical devices are removed. Starting in 2006, the Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI) surveyed doctors and nurses in neonatal intensive care units on their greatest needs. The new adhesive is described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new tape could be produced by adapting current adhesive-manufacturing systems, according to the researchers.Īlthough originally designed for infants, the tape could also be useful for elderly patients. “This is just a huge unmet need,” says Jeffrey Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.īryan Laulicht, a postdoc in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer have now joined Karp in developing a new type of medical tape that can be removed without damaging delicate skin.
Newborns lack an epidermis - the tough outermost layer of skin - so medical tape used to secure respirators or monitoring devices critical for the survival of premature babies can wreak havoc: Every year, more than 1.5 million people suffer scarring and skin irritation from medical tape, and the majority of those are infants or elderly people, who also have fragile skin. However, for newborns’ sensitive skin, tearing off any kind of adhesive can pose a serious risk. Ripping off a Band-Aid may sting for a few seconds, but the pain is usually quickly forgotten.
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