What does this term mean

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Maceration to surrounding skin should be avoided by ensuring that the moist dressing is confined within the wound margins?

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Which term? Maceration? It means the softening of skin by being immersed in or in contact with liquid. Macerated skin will start to break down.

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sorry not the term but the whole sentence

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Now that you know the meaning of "maceration", the sentence should make sense.

As das729 said, maceration occurs when healthy skin comes into contact with water, softens and breaks down. So if you have a wound that is covered with a moist dressing, you want to confine the moist dressing to the wound so as not to put the healthy skin surrounding the wound at risk of breaking down.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

It just means keep the dressing on the wound, don't let it touch the surrounding skin.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

the sentence is telling you that to keep the skin dry, make sure the dressing is secure around the edges of the wound. If he wound is exposed to moisture you have a problem.

Maceration is when your fingers get wrinkly when in water a long time. Skins gets too soft and can break down easier.

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