[skin nurse]

I have a resident who came to us with a stage 4 wound on her coccyx about 8cm by 7 cm with a depth of 3 cm and tunneling of 5 cm. We have done wonders with this wound and it is shrinking in size. Here is our problem we have been using pink tape and it has been working well, but now she is beginning to have reaction to this. We tried montgomery strap but it came off in 1 day due to the copius amount of drainage. How do we keep a dressing on without causing skin issues related to the tape being used?

[BlueRidgeHomeRN]

Have you tried Mefix over a copious amount of skin barrier prep (ie--several coats--apply, dry, repeat)?

[NancyNurse08]

Skin barrier and Medipore tape is what our wound care nurses seem to like.

[GrumpyRN63]

Can't she get a wound vac by now????

[RN1989]

This lady needs a wound vac! You are risking more skin injury with copious drainage and tape.

If you can't get her qualified or your NH will not pay for it out of the MC skilled reimbursement, which I suspect may be the case, you can always try an ostomy bag that is emptied frequently. This would at least let the fluid drain away and you would not be taping and retaping. It would also cut down on nursing time needed to do frequent dressing changes.