Surgical tape or medical tape is a type of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape used in medicine and

first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...

to hold a

bandage A bandage is a piece of material used either to support a medical device such as a dressing or splint, or on its own to provide support to or to restrict the movement of a part of the body. When used with a dressing, the dressing is applie ...

or other dressing onto a wound. These tapes usually have a

hypoallergenic Hypoallergenic, meaning "below average" or "slightly" allergenic, is a term meaning that something (usually cosmetics, pets, textiles, food, etc.) causes fewer allergic reactions. The term was first used in 1953 in an advertising campaign for cos ...

adhesive which is designed to hold firmly onto skin, dressing materials, and underlying layers of tape, but to remove easily without damaging the skin. They allow air to reach the skin ("breathable"). Some breathable tapes such as kinesiology tape, and other elastic bandages with adhesive are made of cotton. Surgical tape is often white because it contains

zinc oxide Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cement ...

, which is added to help prevent

infection An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...

s. Tapes made of porous material, such as 3M Micropore, are widely used.

History

Primitive surgical tape, or ''sparadrapum'' probably consisted of strips of cloth impregnated with some type of plaster or sticky gum, which was applied over gauzes or wound dressings to hold them in place. Plaster casts over fractures were sometimes called "Spanish dressings" In early modern times an Italian a description appears in the thirteenth century, where surgical tape was recorded as ''sparadrappo'', although there were some variations of spelling. In French it first appears in 1314 as '' speradrapu'', and in Spanish it was documented as ''espadrapo'' around 1495. Linguistically it is possible that in European

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

: * the first linguistic element ''spara'' could come Latin ''separāre'' (separate), itself composed verb parāre (prepare, arrange), and linked to a root Indo-European ''per (Ə)´ -1 (procure, disposal). * The second element comes from Latin drappus'' (cloth or rag), and appears in the fifth century BCE work of the Greek medical writer

Oribasius Oribasius or Oreibasius ( el, Ὀρειβάσιος; c. 320 – 403) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He ...

, who speculates that term may relate to a Celtic loan word.

Types of surgical tape

There are many types of surgical tape classified according to the material of which the tape itself is constituted and the qualities of the applied adhesive, which should be

. The most common types are either fragile tape (such as paper, which tears easily) or tear-resistant (often fabric or plastic) and some of these may also be either waterproof or breathable or both water-resistant and partly-porous, allowing some limited passage of air and moisture. A bandage should have appropriate adhesive power and be breathable and at the same time impermeable, easy to remove without irritating the skin and resistant to extreme temperatures, aging and solar radiation. Surgical tapes for medical use are subject to the requirements contained in internationally recognized standards such as the

ASTM International ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, ...

ASTM PSTC / 6 standard.ASTM STANDARDS ON Pressure Sensitive Adhesive tape
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Features

Some features of surgical tape dressings include: * rolls, or pre-cut and individually packaged * transparent, white, and "skin" colours (although in a limited range of skin colours) * rigid, or stretch (to fix a dressing in place, or to flex around to skeletal joints) * waterproof or absorbent

History

Types of surgical tape

Features

References

Further reading