Background/Objective: Medical adhesives provide securement of medical devices,facilitate skin protection and allow noninvasive monitoring. Application and removalof medical adhesives can result in pain, dermatitis, trauma or other skin lesions.Understanding patients’ experiences when subjected to medical adhesives willcontribute to the improvement of clinical routines and the development andimprovement of new adhesive technologies.
Method: A qualitative systematic review was conducted to identify patients’experiences with the application of medical adhesives to the skin. CINAHL, EMBASE,MEDLINE and PsycINFO were systematically searched for records published betweenJanuary 2012 and March 2024. Studies including qualitative data on the experience ofpatients with the application of medical adhesives to the skin were considered. Theliterature search identified 5463 records. After removing duplicates, 3102 articles werescreened by using Covidence software. The eligibility of 160 full text articles wasassessed, 151 studies were excluded. In total, 9 studies were included.Study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal were independently conducted bytwo reviewers. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the JoannaBriggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool for Qualitative Research. The extracted datawas synthesized using meta-aggregation based on the Joanna Briggs Instituteguidelines.
Result: The included studies described experiences with wound dressings. Meta-aggregation of the extracted findings resulted in seven categories that were furthersynthesized into two synthesized findings: ‘Strategies to alleviate pain during dressingchanges’ and ‘Dressing construction and characteristics’. The synthesized findingsillustrate that patients experience pain during dressing change and removal and employvarious strategies to alleviate this pain.
Conclusion: Patients’ experience pain and discomfort when dressings are changed orremoved. Future research should focus on enhancing both routines and technologies,with a particular emphasis on advancing skin-friendly adhesives to reduce unwantedside effects.