Nuances Of The Growing U.S. Market For Advanced Wound Dressings
By Graham Diett and Kamran Zamanian, Ph.D., iData Research
The wound-healing process consists of four phases: hemostasis (or coagulation), inflammation, proliferation, and epithelialization. When a wound cannot heal due to abnormalities in the body’s physiological processes, it can remain chronically open. This is the case with diabetic and venous ulcers. Open wounds also can develop if an individual is immobile and has reduced sensory perception, as is the case with bed-ridden elderly patients and paralyzed or sedated patients. Once these wounds occur, advanced wound dressings can play an important role in closing the wound and helping the body’s natural healing processes.1
Advanced wound dressings are segmented into moist dressings, antimicrobial dressings, interactive dressings, and non-adherent contact layers. Healthcare workers decide which type of wound dressing is the most appropriate for a given situation. The theory of moist wound care dictates that healing is greatly improved in an optimized moist environment. By means of a physicochemical mechanism, these dressings regulate wound healing, specifically by controlling moisture levels. Wound dressings with antimicrobial properties are used to inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungus in chronic and open wounds. Generally, the market is segmented into silver impregnated and non-silver dressings. Interactive dressings become involved with the body’s physiology and mimic substances in the body’s wound-healing pathways that are lacking in situations with chronic wounds or in burn patients. The interactive dressing market includes collagen dressings and skin substitutes. Contact layers are non- or low-adherent primary dressings composed of a woven, perforated polymer net. They are placed directly onto the wound bed and remain in place to decrease trauma during changes of the outer dressings.1
The Shift Away From Traditional Wound Dressings
Because of the benefits provided by advanced wound dressings, there has been a shift away from using traditional wound dressings, such as gauze, tape, bandages, and cotton, in situations where they would have been used for more complex wounds. Gauze and cotton can still be an effective method to treat acute wounds and, due to their lower price points, traditional dressings will not be replaced. However, for chronic wounds, traditional dressings cannot be as efficient as advanced dressings and have disadvantages such as poor barrier function and poor hemostasis. Additionally, traditional dressings are dry and can sometimes be painful, especially during removal, and frequent removals are required when using gauze dressings. Advanced wound dressings include foams, films, sponges, fibers, and hydrogels, all of which solve the problems with using traditional dressings.2
Education And Awareness Of Advanced Wound Dressings
In recent years, there has been an increase in awareness of the benefits provided by advanced wound dressings. Because of this, more healthcare workers are receiving the training required to utilize advanced wound dressings, which involves knowing when and how to use the appropriate dressings in a given scenario. Unfortunately, the benefits of advanced wound dressings are not fully understood by insurance companies and, as a result, there is a lack of reimbursement for advanced wound dressing products. Facilities with constrained budgets or price-sensitive customers may not be able to fully utilize these products due to the lack of reimbursement. As a result, some wounds are treated by different advanced wound care techniques such as negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT), which is a more affordable wound care method, due to rental rates being controlled by a competitive bidding process. Because of this, there is more room for growth in the advanced wound dressing market.
Growth Among The Different Types Of Advanced Wound Dressings
The total advanced wound dressing market is growing noticeably. When looking at how each segment is growing, antimicrobial dressings are growing at the fastest rate. This has to do with its use in fighting infections, which includes facility acquired, or nosocomial, infections that are not reimbursed by Medicare.
Growth in the moist dressing market is largely driven by the aging population due to its applications in providing protection of fragile skin from moisture, friction, and pressure. Moist dressings are made up of numerous sub-segments, the most prominent one being foam dressings. Foam dressings are commonly used because they are highly absorbent and protective, they facilitate a moist wound environment, and they do not require frequent changes due to their properties.3 Foam dressings are both the largest and fastest-growing sub-segment within the moist dressing segment.1
Interactive dressings are used in situations where the patient is re-dressed at longer intervals, allowing for a more cost-effective and better quality of care for the patient. Additionally, interactive dressings work well in conjunction with wound properties such as wound exudate, tissue, cells, and more. However, with recent reimbursement propositions, the use of skin substitutes to treat wounds has come into question, and new reimbursement rules proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may impact sales of these products.4
Non-adherent contact layers are the only segment that is not growing. This is because non-adherent contact layers have little use on their own; instead, they are mostly used in conjunction with other dressings as support.
Potential Limiter Of Growth
While the advanced wound dressing market has grown and is expected to continue to do so, in late 2023, the FDA proposed a new rule for classifying certain types of wound dressings containing certain chemicals.5 Some of the specific wound dressing types impacted by this proposal are solid wound dressings, wound dressings formulated as gels, and liquid wound wash containing antimicrobials.5 These categories of dressings are proposed being classified as Class II requirements, making them subject to requirements with special controls or premarket approval.5 This may impact all aspects of new and existing products’ life cycles, which would cause limited growth in this market as a result.5
Conclusion
Overall, the advanced wound dressing market is currently growing at a noticeable rate. There are many factors for this growth, including, but not limited to, the aging population and in turn more complex wounds to treat, the clinical advantages that advanced wound dressings have over traditional wound dressings, and the increase in awareness and education on the benefits of advanced wound dressings.1 However, there is still more room for growth, as lack of reimbursement holds this market back, especially due to the fact that NPWT can be used as a substitute for certain types of wounds and is a more affordable alternative.
References
- iData Research Inc. (2024). U.S. Market Report Suite for Wound and Tissue Management - 2024. Vancouver. https://idataresearch.com/product/u-s-wound-and-tissue-management-market/
- Bülbül, E. Ö., Okur, M. E., Okur, N. Ü., & Siafaka, P. I. (2022). Chapter 2 - Traditional and advanced wound dressings: physical characterization and desirable properties for wound healing. ScienceDirect, 19-50.
- Weller, C. D., Team, V., & Sussman, G. (2020, February 28). First-Line Interactive Wound Dressing Update: A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence. PubMed. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7059819/
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2024, April 25). CMS Statement on Proposed Local Coverage Determination (LCD) for Skin Substitute Grafts/Cellular and Tissue-Based Products for the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers and Venous Leg Ulcers. Retrieved from CMS.gov: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-statement-proposed-local-coverage-determination-lcd-skin-substitute-grafts/cellular-and-tissue
- Clevenger, J., Benetatos, N., Sauer-Budge, A., Van Trump, I., Abraham, S., & Alexander, K. (2024, February 15). FDA Proposes New Rule for Reclassification of Wound Dressings. Retrieved from exponent.com: https://www.exponent.com/article/fda-proposes-new-rule-reclassification-wound-dressings#:~:text=Food%20and%20Drug%20Administration's%20proposal,containing%20antimicrobials%20or%20other%20chemicals.
About The Authors:
Graham Diett is a research analyst team lead at iData Research. He develops and composes syndicated research projects regarding the medical device industry, publishing the EU Patient Monitoring Equipment report series.
Kamran Zamanian, Ph.D., is CEO and founding partner of iData Research. He has spent over 20 years working in the market research industry with a dedication to the study of medical devices used in the health of patients all over the globe.