A new surgical tape with a mesh designed to prevent skin tears and reduce pain during tape removal

by Naoaki Rikihisa, Nobuyuki Mitsukawa, Hiroaki Rikhisa, Masayuki Nakao

We devised a surgical tape that prevents skin tears while maintaining adhesive strength. Under the assumption that microscopic damage to the skin is reflected in pain felt on the skin, we statistically analyzed skin pain when the tape was peeled off to show the skin protection effect of the mesh on the new tape. This tape has a three-layer structure consisting of a tape substrate, adhesive, and mesh. When the tape is applied to the skin, a mesh is located between the adhesive and the skin. The adhesive contacts the skin through the mesh holes and fixes the substrate to the skin; it does not come into contact with the skin at the mesh body; therefore, the adhesive-skin contact area is reduced. In this experiment, we used surgical tape with and without mesh. At 8 hours after the application of each tape to the forearm of five adult males, it was removed. All tapes were peeled off while maintaining an angle of approximately 120° between the skin and tape substrate. For the tape with mesh, the tape substrate was peeled off in two ways: peeling off the substrate together with the mesh and peeling off the substrate, leaving the mesh on the skin. A perception and pain quantification analyzer (Pain Vision™) was used to quantify pain. The data were compared and examined statistically (Friedman’s test and Wilcoxon’s coded rank test). The least pain was experienced while peeling off the tape substrate, leaving the mesh on the skin. There was a significant difference in pain levels among the three tape removal methods. There was also a significant difference between the two peeling methods in the experimental group. The skin protection effect of the mesh reduced pain when the surgical tape was removed.