Feature Article : Wound Dressings for Wound Healing and Drug Delivery

Since skin is what protects our body from the external environment, skin wounds cause inconveniences in life and lead to post-trauma sequela and stress. When the skin is wounded, it is healed through a series of pro-cesses, such as via the haemostasis/inflammation phase, migration phase, proliferation phase, and maturation phase, during which time exudate containing various growth factors is released at the wound. Wound dressings we reemployed by dry dressing in the past, and this process heals the wound by drying it and creating crust, but, recently, wet dressings have been used in locations where appropriate temperature and humidity are maintained. Also, besides wet dressings, drug delivery systems and tissue engineering have been used recently for wound treatment, both of which utilize wound dressing products, such as hydrocolloid, alginate, hydrogel, foam, and biological dressings. And now, reaching beyond the existing role of just protecting the wound, wound dressings for drug delivery systems con-taining drugs and growth factors are being researched so that they can be used for difficult wound treatments, suchas chronic wounds or burns. This article reviews the developments of various wound dressings that have been madeto date.