Bandage - Bar

bandage

(ban′dăj) 1. Apiece of soft, usually absorbent gauze or other material applied to a limb or other part of the body as a dressing. 2. To cover by wrapping with a piece of gauze or other material.

 Bandages are used to hold dressings in place, apply pressure to a part, immobilize a part, obliterate cavities, support an injured area, and check hemorrhages. Types of bandages include roller, triangular, four-tailed, manytailed (Scultetus), quadrangular, elastic (elastic knit, rubber, synthetic, or combinations of these), adhesive, elastic adhesive, newer cohesive bandages under various proprietary names, impregnated bandages (plaster of Paris, water-glass [silica], starch), and stockinet. Use of a self-adhering, form-fitting roller bandage facilitates bandaging by eliminating the special techniques needed when ordinary gauze roller bandages are used. SEE: illus.; sling.

APPLYING BANDAGES

 abdominal b. A single wide cravat or several narrow ones used to hold a dressing in place or to exert moderate pressure.

 adhesive b. A bandage made of adhesive tape.

 amputation-stump b. An elastic bandage applied to an amputation stump to control postoperative edema and to shape the stump. The elastic bandage is applied in a recurrent or figure-of-eight fashion with more pressure applied to the distal, rather than the proximal, portion of the limb.

 axilla b. A bandage with a spica-type turn starting under the affected axilla, crossing over the shoulder of the affected side, and making the long loop under the opposite armpit.

 back b. An open bandage to the back, applied like a chest bandage, the point placed above the scapula of the injured side.

 Barton b. SEE: Barton bandage.

 breast b. A suspensory bandage and compress for the breasts.

 butterfly b. An adhesive bandage used in place of sutures to hold wound edges together. Filmy sterile adhesive strips have replaced the butterfly bandage.

 buttocks b. T b.

  circular b. A bandage applied in circular turns about a part.

 cohesive b. A bandage made of material that sticks to itself but not to other substances, used to bandage fingers and extremities or to build up pads.

 cravat b. A triangular bandage folded to form a band around an injured part.

 cravat b. for clenched fist A hand bandage to arrest bleeding or to produce pressure. The wrist is placed on the center of the cravat; one end is brought around over the fist and back to the starting point, and the same procedure is then repeated with the other end. The two ends are pulled tight, twisted, and ...