Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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This invention concerns an adhesive plaster used for
protecting a wound formed on a skin surface, for example, by
an injection needle and stopping bleeding therefrom upon
applying injection, transfusion, etc. This invention also
relates to a plaster support tape having a plurality of such
plasters releasably arranged thereon, as well as to a plaster
dispensing case for containing such a plaster support tape
and dispensing the plasters successively.
Adhesive plasters or first aid bandages are often used
for temporarily protecting a wound caused by an injection
needle or the like after applying injection, transfusion,
etc. till bleeding stops by the hemostatic action of blood,
so as to prevent contamination to patients' wears or to
prevent percutaneous infection.
As a conventional way of applying plasters to the skin
surface, pressure-sensitive adhesives have usually been
coated on the rear side of plasters. However, if a
relatively large amount of blood is bled though a wound,
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it wets and makes the adhesives ineffective and often
causes the bonded plaster to be fallen from the skin
surface. In such a case, the blood will contaminate
patients' wears, etc.
Further, the adhesives coated on the plaster give
undesirable stimulations to the skin surface of a living
body, particularly, to the injured epidermis and possibly
cause contact epidermatis such as epidermallergosis.
In addition, intimate contact between the plaster and
the skin surface may possibly lead to undesirable sudamina-
causing sweaty condition due to respiration if the plaster
is left over a long period of time.
Furthermore, since the conventional adhesive plasters
are usually made of soft and rlexible cloth material, they
tend to crease easily or adhere to a finger thus bringing
about a difficulty in handling them.
It is particularly inconvenient to apply a plurality
of adhesive plasters of a small size, for example, of
about one-half inch square successively in a case of mass
inoculation, etc.
Moreover, awkward handling by unskilled operators
often causes pollution to the adhesive surface of the
plasters and may possibly cause a risk of accidental
bacterial or virus infection through a patients' wound or,
adversely, bring about dangerous infection to an operator
by way of the blood of a patient suffering from highly
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inrective disease.
In view of the above, an adhesive bandage comprising
a central wound-facing pad area and adjacent adhesive
coated area has been proposed, for example, in U.S. Patent
No. 4530353. In this patented adhesive bandage, the central
portion is Z-folded to form a pad of triple thickness facing
wound skin while the adjacent areas are heat calendered to
provide a surface suitable for coating with adhesives (for
example, in Figures 1 - 5 of the U.S. patent). The sheet-
like material thus formed is then cut into individual
unitary bandages as shown in Fig. 6 of the patent.
The bandage of the cited patent is surely effective
since the wound-facing central pad 25 carries no adhesive
and the band age can be applied by way of adjacent areas
28, 29 coated with adhesives 30, 31.
However, since the bandage is entirely made of soft
and flexible material such as non-woven fabrics, it is
not so convenient upon practical use as has been described
above, particularly, if the size of the unitary bandage is
relatively small. In addition, since each of the unitary
bandages is usually combined with a releasable sheet when
stored in a container or casing, individual bandages have
to be applied upon use arter removing the releasable
sheets respectively, which is very much troublesome and
time consuming because of the soft and flexible structure
of the non-woven fabrics.
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Accordingly, it has been demanded to develop an adhesive
plaster that can be handled with ease, reliably fixed to the
wound skin surface and stop the bleeding, while keeping the
adhesives from contact with the wound on the skin surface.
S It has also been demanded a practical tool that can
successively and automatically apply a plurality of adhesive
plasters rapidly and easily while keeping sanitary condition
in view of accidental infection.
The present invention provides an adhesive plaster
capable of easily and reliably protecting wound skin surface
after injection, transfusion, etc.
The present invention also provides an adhesive plaster
support tape having a plurality of adhesive plasters
releasably arranged on the surface thereof, and capable of
applying them individually to a patient's wound skin surface
easily and rapidly with no risk of infection or
contamination.
The present invention again provides a plaster
dispensing case containing a plaster support tape therein and
capable of appending a plurality of adhesive plasters on the
support, support one by one rapidly and easily.
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The present invention thus provides an adhesive plaster
comprising:
a plaster substrate made of a highly liquid-absorbing
porous texture, and
a solid core member made of a resilient synthetic resin
film, which is bonded at the upper surface thereof to the
lower surface of the plaster substrate, in which the core
member is perforated at the central portion thereof to define
a cavity or bore for covering a wound portion of a skin
surface and an adhesive region is formed on the lower surface
of an annular peripheral portion around the central cavity.
When the adhesive plaster according to this invention is
applied, blood bleeding through the wound of a skin surface
formed by a needle of injection or transfusion is stored in
the cavity of the core member and coagulated by its
hemostatic activity. If the amount of the bleeding blood is
relatively large and can not fully be contained in the
cavity, excess blood can be absorbed and retained in the
highly liquid-absorbing porous texture of the plaster
substrate and coagulated therein.
Since the adhesive region to the skin surface is formed
only in the annular peripheral portion around the central
cavity at the lower surface of the core member, this
peripheral adhesive region is scarcely brought into
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contact and wetted with the blood and, accordingly, the
adhesive effect thereof is not lost by bleeding and the
adhesive plaster can surely be bonded to the skin surface
with no detachment.
Further, since the annular periphery of the core
member coated with the adhesives is not in direct contact
with the wound, undesirable stimulation that would other-
wise cause contact epidermatis, etc. is not given to the
injured surface skin. In addition since the wound portion
is contained within the cavity of the core member, it is
kept from intimate contact with the plaster substrate
thereby capable of avoiding undesired sweaty condition.
Particularly, since the plaster substrate is backed
with the resilient core member, an adequate resilient
strength is given to the entire plaster to facilitate the
handling thereof. That is, the plaster can be handled
easily with no creasing and it can be released almost
spontaneously from the plaster support tape as described
later.
In the adhesive plaster according to this invention,
the plaster substrate is preferably composed of non-woven
fabrics for attaining high liquid-absorbability and liquid-
retainability. Non-woven fabrics are, preferabiy, made of
natural or synthetic cellulose fibers. Natural fibers
such as of cotton is particularly preferred.
In a preferred embodiment, the plaster substrate has
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a liquid impermeable barrier film such as made of a synthetic
film laminated on the upper surface thereof. Even if
remarkable bleeding occurs and excess blood is leached out
from the surface of the plaster substrate, the liquid
S impermeable barrier film can prevent such excess blood from
bleeding externally and contaminating patients' wears, etc.
The present invention also provides a plaster support
tape comprising an elongate soft and flexible thin film tape
having a non-tacky smooth surface and a plurality of adhesive
plasters releasably supported on the surface of the film tape
along the longitudinal direction thereof at a predetermined
interval, each of the adhesive plasters comprising:
a plaster substrate made of a highly liquid-absorbing
porous texture, and
a solid core member made of a resilient synthetic resin
film, which is bonded at the upper surface thereof to the
lower surface of the plaster substrate, in which the core
member is perforated at the central portion thereof to define
a cavity or bore for covering a wound portion of a skin
surface and an adhesive region is formed on the lower surface
of an annular peripheral portion around the central cavity.
In this case, each of the individual adhesive plasters
can easily be separated from the film tape by merely
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bending the tape with an acute angle at a position where the
plaster is attached.
Namely, the unitary plaster is once bent together with
the bent portion of the film tape. However, the resilient
film of the core member backing the plaster substrate can not
remain in the state as it is bent sharply but tends to resume
its original flat form due to its resiliency and springs up
against the bonding strength of the adhesives. As a result,
the entire adhesive plaster is spontaneously released from
the surface of the film tape. Thus, the plasters can be
separated spontaneously and appended successively by merely
bending or turning the adhesive support tape. Thus, an
operator is free from the troublesome labour of peeling
individual releasing paper, etc. from the back of the small
plaster as experienced so far.
The present invention also provides a plaster dispensing
case for dispensing a plurality of adhesive plasters arranged
and supported releasably on the surface of a plaster support
tape contained therein, wherein the plaster dispensing case
comprises:
a case main body for containing a roll body of a plaster
support tape in such a manner as capable of rotationally
unwinding the plaster support tape therefrom,
means in the form of a slit formed through the
circumferential wall of the case main body for pulling out
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the forward end of the plaster support tape out of the
case main body,
means in the form of a member having a rounded edge
disposed to the case main body on one side of the slit for
engaging and turning the plaster support tape up-side-down
and guiding the thus reversed tape in the direction sub-
stantially opposite to the pulling direction, and
means in the form of a plate disposed on the other
side of the slit and extended integrally from the case
main body for holding the adhesive plaster released from
the surface of the support tape upon turning the direction
of the forward end and appending the thus separated plaster
to the skin surface.
When the forward end of the the soft and flexible
plaster support tape is unwound from the roll body and
pulled out through the slit, it is bent abruptly along
the tape engaging and turning means. Then, an adhesive
plaster releasably bonded to the surface Or the plaster
support tape is spontaneously separated due to its
resiliency and then fallen on the tape holding means with
the adhesive surface being faced upwardly. Then, by
pressing the tape holding means to the skin surface, the
adhesive plaster can be bonded to the skin.
Since individual plasters are successively separated
from the plaster support tape by merely pulling out the
forward end of the plaster support tape intermittently out
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of the case main body and the plasters are placed
successively on the tape holding means, a plurality of
plasters can be appended one by one rapidly and easily.
Furthermore, since the operator contacts only at the forward
end of the plaster support tape upon handling, the adhesive
surface of the plaster is free from the risk of contamination
upon appending operation.
In a preferred embodiment of the plaster dispensing case
according to this invention, the case main body comprises a
pair of mating upper and lower members each prepared by one-
piece molding from synthetic thermoplastic resin and joined
to each other. Since this embodiment can be mass-produced at
a reduced cost, it can be manufactured as a disposal type if
required. Since the case is sterilized after containing the
plaster support tape therein and since it is discarded after
dispensing up all of the individual adhesive plasters, a
quite sanitary condition can be obtained for the case and the
plaster support tape.
Advantageous features of this invention will become more
apparent by the following descriptions for preferred
embodiments according to this invention while referring to
the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Figure 1 is an enlarged vertical cross sectional view
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of an adhesive plaster according to this invention;
Figure 2 and Figure 3 are enlarged vertical cross
sectional view illustrating the intermediate steps of
manufacturing the adhesive plaster;
Figure 4 is an explanatory view illustrating the final
step of manufacturing the adhesive plaster;
Figure 5 is an explanatory view illustrating the state
in which the adhesive plaster is being separated from the
plaster support tape;
Figure 6 is an exploded view illustrating the tape
dispensing case according to this invention; and
Figure 7 is a perspective view illustrating the state of
use of the tape dispensing case.
Adhesive Plaster
Explanation is to be made at first for a preferred
embodiment of an adhesive plaster according to this invention
referring to Figure 1, which shows an enlarged vertical cross
section of a unitary adhesive plaster.
As shown in Figure 1, an adhesive plaster 1 of this
embodiment comprises a disk-like plaster substrate 2 made
on non-woven fabrics composed of cotton cellulose fibers
having highly liquid-absorbing property, about 15 mm in
diameter and O.S mm in thickness (hereinafter simply
referred to as a liquid-absorbing disk 2) and an annular
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solid core member 3 made of a relatively tough and elastic
polyethylene terephthalate film about 15 mm in diameter
and 0.1 mm in thickness (hereinafter simply referred to as
a core film 3). The core film 3 has a central circular
bore or cavity 4 of a sufficient area to cover a wound on
the skin surface formed by an injection needle or the
like. Pressure-sensitive adhesives made of an acrylic
polymer which is less stimulative to the wound skin are
coated to the annular peripheral portion 5 on the lower
side of the core film 3 to constitute an adhesive region 6.
The peripheral annular portion on the upper surface
of the core film 3 is bonded by means of an adhesive layer
7 to the lower surface of the liquid-absorbing disk 2.
A liquid impermeable barrier layer 8 made of a poly-
ethylene terephthalate film about 30 um in thickness is
laminated to the upper surface of the liquid-absorbing
disk 2. Individual adhesive plasters 1 are arranged
releasably on a plaster support tape 9 made of a plastic
film tape to be detailed later.
The way of using such an adhesive plaster 1 will at
first be explained briefly referring to Figure 1.
When the adhesive plaster 1 is released from the
plaster support tape 9, the adhesive region 6 is exposed
at the annular periphery 5 on the lower surface of the
core film 3.
Then, the adhesive plaster 1 is applied under a
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slight pressure to the skin surface such that a wound on
the skin surface caused by an in;ection needle or the like
is included in the central cavity 4 Or the core film 3.
The adhesive plaster 1 is bonded to the skin surface by
the adhesive region 6 formed at the annular periphery 5,
by which the entire adhesive plaster 1 is firmly fixed to
and protect the wound skin surface.
In this embodiment, since the area of the circular
cavity 4 is made large enough, it is relatively easy to
apply the adhesive plaster 1 such that the wound skin
surface may be situated within the area Or the cavity 4.
A small amount of blood bled out of the wound will
gradually be coagulated by its hemostatic function. In
the prior art adhesive plaster, blood before coagulation
some time wets the adhesives at the rear face of the
adhesive plaster to inactivate the adhesive function and
often causes the plaster to defoliate.
While on the other hand in this embodiment, a small
amount of blood is coagulated before it fully fills the
cavity 4 Or the core film 3 and scarcely intrudes to the
adhesive region 6 in the adjacent periphery 5. Accordingly,
the adhesive function of the adhesive plaster 1 is not
lost. Further, even if the amount of bleeding is so large
as can not fully be contained in the cavity 4, excess
blood is rapidly absorbed to the highly liquid-absorbing
non-woven cotton fabrics of the liquid-absorbing disk 2
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and, therefore, it is substantially kept from contact with
the adhesive region 6 at the annular periphery 5. Further-
more, if excess blood should happen to be leached out from
the liquid-absorbing disk 2, since the upper surface of
the disk 2 is covered with the liquid-impermeable barrier
layer 8, there is no worry that patient's wears, etc. are
contaminated by the blood.
In addition, since the wound on the skin surface is
contained to the inside of the cavity 4 and not brought
into direct contact with the adhesive region 6, undesirable
chemical stimulation to the in~ured skin tissue can be
avoided. Moreover, since the portion of the skin at or
near the wound is contained in the cavity 4 and kept from
intimate contact with the disk 2, undesired sweaty condi-
tion due to perspiration can be kept as less as possible.
Plaster Support Tape
The adhesive plaster 1 shown in Figure 1 is preferably
arranged releasably on the plaster support tape 9 at a
predetermined interval along the longitudinal direction
Or the support tape for the sake of easy handling.
A preferred embodiment of the plaster support tape
used in this invention will now be explained while refer-
ring to Figures 2 through 4, in which corresponding com-
ponents to those in Figure 1 carry the same reference
numerals.
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The plaster support tape 9 carrying a plurality of
adhesive plasters 1 arranged thereon can be manufactured,
for example, by a series of successive steps as described
below.
As shown in Figure 2, adhesive layers 6 and 7 made of
pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesives are formed on upper
and lower surfaces Or a core film 3 made of polyethylene
terephthalate and the core film 3 in the form Or a so-
do.) ~
called bv~h face adhesive tape is bonded to the smooth
releasing surface of the support tape 9 also made Or
polyethylene terephthalate about 0.1 mm in thickness.
Then, a silicon-coated releasable sheet 10 used only
during the manufacturing step is appended to the upper
surface of the core film 3, to constitute an intermediate
lamination product.
Then, the intermediate lamination product is applied
with die punching to form a series of perforations each of
a size corresponding to that of the cavity 4 as shown on
the right of Figure 2 at a predetermined longitudinal
interval. Then, the releasable sheet 10 is removed to
expose the adhesive layer 7 at the upper surface as shown
on the left Or Figure 2.
Next, as shown in Figure 3, non-woven cotton fabric
layer as the material for the liquid-absorbing disk 2,
laminated with a polyethylene terephthalate film 8 attached
on its upper surface, is bonded to the adhesive layer 7
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to obtain a final laminate. Then, a so-called half-die
cut is applied to form a series of disk-like products each
corresponding to the adhesive plaster 1 shown in Figure 1,
while leaving only the releasable film tape 9 uncut.
Then, as shown in Figure 4, when the remaining por-
tions other than the disk-like products are removed from
the final laminate, an adhesive support tape 9 can be
obtained, in which a plurality of adhesive plasters 1
are arranged on the support tape 9 at a predetermined
longitudinal interval as shown in Figures 3 and 4.
The principle of using such a plaster support tape 9
is schematically shown in Figure 5.
In Figure 5, the forward end of the plaster support
tape 9 is engaged over the outer circumference of a tape
engaging and turning member (illustrated as a round bar E
only for the sake of the simplicity) and then turned with
an acute angle under sliding contact with the member E and
guided substantially in the reverse direction. In this
case, as the soft and flexible support tape 9 is bent
forcibly by the pulling force, the adhesive plaster 1
releasably bonded to the surface of the tape 9 is also
bent together. However, since the core film 3 in the
plaster 1 (shown in Figure 1) is considerably tough and
elastic, it tends to be sprung back and straightened by
its resiliency. Then, the entire plaster 1 defoliates
spontaneously from the smooth surface of the plaster
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support tape 9 against the bonding strength of the
adhesives.
In this way, successive plasters 1 can be released
one by one in the same way by merely pulling the plaster
support tape intermittently along the turning path.
Accordingly, a plurality of adhesive plasters 1
arranged collectively on the plaster support tape 9 can
be spontaneously released from the surface of the support
tape 9 appended to the skin surface.
The use of the plaster support tape is particularly
favorable in such a case where a plurality Or plasters are
used succesively, for example, in mass preventive inocula-
tion.
Such a plaster support tape can be used more effec-
tively when it is combined with a plaster dispensing case
according to this invention to be described just below for
dispensing individual adhesive plasters one by one from
the plaster support tape and then securely applying them
with no troublesome contact with finger or the like.
Plaster Dispensing Case
Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view for a plaster
dispensing case according to this invention which is conve-
niently used for applying a plurality of individual adhesive
plasters rapidly and successively.
As shown in Figure 6, a plaster dispensing case main
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body 31 comprises a pair of an upper case member 32 and
a lower case member 33 each formed by means of one-piece
injection molding from transparent polypropylene resin.
The upper case member 32 has engaging female members
34B formed to four corners at the inside thereof, while
the lower case member 33 has engaging male members 34A
formed to four corners at the inside thereof respectively.
The case members 32 and 33 are tightly fitted to each
other along a seam line 35.
The case main body 31 has a tape exit in the form of
a slit 37 formed through the circumferential wall at its
upper right corner for pulling out the plaster support
tape 9 from a roll body 36 of the tape in the direction
of arrow A (as shown in Fig. 7) .
A plaster hold plate 38 is disposed integrally with
the upper case member 32 in adjacent with one side of the
slit 37.
A tape engaging and turning member 39 is formed on
the other side of the slit 37, so that the forward end of
the tape 9 pulled out of the case main body 31 through the
slit 37 is turned up-side-down along the rounded edge of
the turning member 39 and then guided in the direction of
arrow B substantially opposite to the direction A (Figure 7) .
A guide member 40 is integrally formed to the case
member 32 for guiding the forward end of the tape 9
through the gap between the guide member 40 and the outer
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circumference Or the lower case member 33.
In the tape dispensing case of thls illustrated
embodiment, the roll body 36 of the support tape 9 is
rotatably enhoused to the inside of the case 31 so that
the forward end of the plaster support tape 9 can be
rotationally unwound therefrom and pulled out through the
slit 37 to the outside of the upper case member 32. Then,
the lower case member 33 is combined to the upper case
member 32 while engaging the mating male and female members
34A and 34B to each other and tightly fitted along the
seam line 35. The case main body 31 thus assembled is
sterilized together with the roll body 36 by means of
ethylene oxide gas or the like.
Use of the Plaster Dispensing Case
When individual adhesive plasters 1 are intended to
be applied to a plurality of patients successively, the
forward end of the plaster support tape 9 is at first
pulled out through the slit 37 to the plaster hold plate
38 in the direction of arrow A, then turned up-side-down
and engaged along the rounded edge of the tape engaging
and turning member 39 and then guided in the direction of
the arrow B substantially opposed to the direction of the
arrow A beneath the guide 40.
When the plaster support tape 19 is thus turned
abruptly at the edge of the turning member 39, the
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adhesive plaster 1 releasably appended to the surface of
the support tape 9 is spontaneously detached therefrom by
the resilient repulsion due to the tough and resilient
nature of the plaster core film 3 as described before
referring to Figure 5. The separated adhesive plaster 1
is rallen and placed on the plaster hold plate 38 with the
adhesive region 6 (Figure 1) separated from the tape sur-
face being faced upwardly. Then, the case main body 32 is
handled so that the adhesive plaster 1 on the plaster hold
tape 38 is urged to the wound skin surface, by which the
adhesive plaster 1 is firmly bonded to the skin.
Subsequent adhesive plasters 1, 1, --- are also
handled in the same way and each of the individual adhe-
sive plasters 1 can be separated spontaneously from the
plaster support tape 9 by merely pulling the plaster
support tape 9 out of the case 31. Since each of the
adhesive plasters 1 can automatically be separated from
the support tape 9 and placed to the plaster hold plate
~JI o~ J
38, a plurality of adhesive plasters can be ~ppon~od
rapidly and easily one by one to a plurality of patients.
Further, since the finger of an operator does not touch
the adhesive plaster 1 during appending operation, there
is no worry that the adhesive surface Or the plaster 1 may
be contaminated, as well as there is less possibility that
G~ r~J
the operator's finger should happen to be pollutod by
patient's blood.
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Further, since the adhesive plasters 1 are sterilized
under the condition that they are enclosed within the case
31 and since the case 31 is be used only for once and then
discarded after all of the adhesive plasters contained
therein have been used up, sanitary conditions can be
kept.
Test Example
The adhesive plasters according to this invention
were tested in the internal and pediatric departments of
National Kokura Hospital (Kita-Kyushu city, Japan) as
after-treatment of subcutenous injection (140 cases),
intravenous injection (50 cases) and intramuscular
injection (400 cases) by using various injection needles
sized from 22 to 27 gages.
In all of the cases, bleeding after injection was
completely stopped and blood pollution or like other trouble
did not occur. Only for several examples of intravenous
injection using 22 gage needles, stopping for bleeding was
found somewhat incomplete but this could be overcome by
slightly urging the adhesive plaster for about several
seconds after the injection. Neither contact dermatitis
nor contact infection attributable to the adhesive plasters
was recognized at all in all of the cases.
The adhesive plasters according to this invention
were highly evaluated both by patients and operators
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because they were free from the worry of blood contami-
nations to wears, accidents of bacteria or virus infection
etc.
