A skin tear is defined as a traumatic wound, that occurs as a result of friction alone.

Aims: To assess the efficacy of two dressing regimens for the management of skin tears in fragile skin of the elderly. Methods: A pilot study of 21 patients was conducted across two centres. Ten patients were treated with Tegaderm® Absorbent (3M Health Care) dressing and 11 with a combination of Mepitel® and Mepilex® Border (Mölnlycke Health Care) dressings. Results: Both dressing regimens had positive clinical outcomes. Where the smaller size dressings were used, the cost differences between the groups were minimal. However, in cases where larger dressings were required, Tegaderm Absorbent proved more cost-effective. Conclusions: The authors found that both methods of treating skin tears had positive clinical outcomes, with healing or progression towards healing in all of the cases. Recruiting subjects for the study was challenging, suggesting that clinical audit may prove a more useful method of evaluation for investigators in the future. Conflict of interest: None.