Hairy Men Everywhere Rejoice: New Bandages Painlessly Remove From Skin

To science! Finally, a problem that has plagued hairy men and monkey-children everywhere has been solved: bandages are now painless to remove!

In an innovation surprisingly not realized before, this new-style of medical tape separates the adhesive layer and the top protective layers allowing your skin to not come along with it. Whatever adhesive is left becomes easy to remove with a simple flick of your fingernail.

I may have worded it lightly, but the problem of sticky bandages is more than uncomfortable – it has shown to scar the skin of infants and can even injure the elderly. In 2006, the Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI) began collecting data from practitioners and medical workers about their most common after-treatment injuries. The data is surprising – a total of 1.5 million events were reported in just one year related to medical tape.

Don Lombardi, CEO of the IPI succinctly states:

When you take the tape off, you take the skin off. It’s very painful, obviously, and it scars them. Some end up with months of aftercare for lesions on their skin due to the tape.

The best part about the technology is that it already exists, so it is easy to start high-scale production. Jeffrey Karp, who’s work at Harvard Medical School was paramount in developing the product, states:

All of the processes are already in place: to place the adhesive layer, to place release liners onto surfaces, and to assemble the adhesive. We really see this as a solution that can be rapidly translated to the clinic, to immediately reduce complications from adhesives…

Sooner rather than later, please. I’m well past the age of unhairiness.

Sources:

io9: Finally Science Invents a Painless Bandaid!

MIT: Taking the Sting Out of Medical Tape