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A couple of pairs of DERMATUff Socks (Leg Protectors) or Sleeves (Arm Protectors) will give you protection against skin tears.

 

 

Don’t let the fear of skin tears restrict you; use DERMATUff professional protection against skin tears.

 

What are skin tears?

Skin tear injuries cause serious pain and can take a long time and expensive medical treatment to heal. They can cover a wide area of skin and come in four degrees of seriousness. The worst being when the entire ‘skin flap’ is lost. Urgent professional attention is required: the injury is very painful, can take a long time to heal and can result in leg ulcers and even amputation.

The solution

The solution to protecting thin, weak or fragile skin and preventing skin tears is the Dermatuff thin skin protection system. Dermatuff is a comfortable, wearable, reasonably-priced system for protection against; skin tears, skin flaps and thinning skin. Our products are suitable for both men and women. Dermatuff have developed, patented and are marketing ‘Skin Tear Protection Socks and Sleeves’ to prevent skin tears to limbs.

We use impact resistant yarns purpose spun from the hard Aramid, Kevlar® by DuPont, together with elasticated nylon and a specialist weaving method. The purpose spun yarn creates a mesh of loops on the inside of the socks or sleeves. The products have a flat, slightly ribbed surface on the outside. The looping cushions impact and the purpose spun yarn gives further cut, tear, shear and abrasion resistance. The combination of the materials and construction also provides additional impact resistance in a similar manner to body armour. The elasticated nylon creates considerable stretchiness so that the socks will fit a wide range of leg diameters within each size, without applying excess pressure. Thus, the soft top band is not restrictive.

 

Other features

 

 

  • Three sizes of socks and sleeves are available: Small, Medium and Large.
  • The feet of the socks are made from cotton as protection is not required for the feet.
  • The socks do not contain any ‘compression’ as required by patients with Oedema, Lymphoedema or Vascular problems. If patients with any of these conditions do need compression then it is possible to wear thin compression liners underneath our thin skin protection socks.
  • The slight pressure applied by the socks in order to fit the legs properly does not cause any medical problems for people with circulation deficiency.

The first product trial

The first product trial took place in 5 nursing homes during July to September 2009. All the managers of the nursing homes were very supportive because the socks worked well. As a result, there was a great reduction in painful skin tears to the patients and a reduction in the dressing of wounds. All of these patients normally had a high level of skin tears and bruises. In summary, 6 of the patients wore the socks for sufficient time to be able to make a judgement about their effectiveness.

The second product trial

The second trial took place between 23rd December 2010 and 15th February 2011 in 5 nursing homes and there were 14 participants. All nursing home managers thought that wearing the socks definitely prevented many more injuries. There was a high level of acceptability of the socks by the residents. From the information given, we have estimated the rate of injuries and bruising which might have occurred if the resident had not been wearing the socks as follows: number of skin tears: 37 and number of bruises: 72.

The table below shows the combined results for both product trials and indicates the very high level of reduction of skin tears and bruises.

Other key information: The number of skin tears was measured by skin tears per person. The number of bruises was measured by bruises per person.

DaysHoursNo. of peopleSkin tearsBruises
7477,8222010
Actual skin tear rateActual bruises rate
0.050
Potential skin tear ratePotential bruises rate
1.703.60
% reduction of skin tears% reduction of bruises
97.05%Eliminated

Additional information

  • Registration of the Socks and Sleeves as a Class I Medical Device has been obtained. The products are CE marked.
  • The products do not cause any irritation or allergic reactions.
  • Dermatuff products are warm in winter and cool in summer.
  • The products may be washed by normal means at normal temperatures.
  • We recommend buying at least two pairs so you have one pair on whilst the other is in the wash.
  • A report on the use of the socks in a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital in England called STOPCUTs can be downloaded here.