Effectiveness of double tie-over dressing compared with bolster dressing

BACKGROUND: Skin grafting is a commonly performed operation in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The tie-over dressing is an effective technique to secure the grafted skin by delivering persistent downward pressure. However, if an additional dressing is required due to incomplete graft healing, the process of re-implementing the tie-over dressing may be frustrating for both patients and surgeons. Therefore, we introduce the double tie-over dressing, which readily allows for an additional tie-over dressing after the first dressing, and we present a comparison of its effectiveness with that of the simpler bolster dressing. METHODS: Of 128 patients with a skin defect, 69 received a double tie-over dressing and 59 patients received a simple bolster dressing. Using the independent t-test, the mean healing time, which was defined as the mean time it took for the wound to heal completely so that no additional dressing was required and it was washable with tap water, was compared between the 2 groups in both the head and neck region and in other areas. RESULTS: The mean healing time for the head and neck region in the double tie-over dressing group was 9.19±1.78 days, while it was 11.05±3.85 days in the bolster dressing group. The comparison of the 2 groups by the independent t-test revealed a P-value of 0.003 for the mean healing time. CONCLUSIONS: In the head and neck area, the double tie-over dressing required less time to heal than the simple bolster dressing.