Background: In addition to its impact on quality of life, wound pain may result in a physiological stress response leading to delayed healing. Two recent audits of the sheet hydrogel wound dressing ActiFormCoolTM have indicated that it can be effective in managing chronic wound pain.

Objectives: To confirm and extend these earlier findings by exploration of the hypothesis that patients using ActiFormCoolTM hydrogel dressing will experience less pain during wear time.

Methods: Fifty one patients were assessed for wound pain, exudate, comfort and healing status before and during wound management with ActiFormCoolTM. Overall pain and the individual types of pain classified as ‘ache’, ‘burn’, ‘sharp’ or ‘stinging’ were assessed.

Results: Statistically significant reduction of ache, burn or sharp pain types was found when ActiFormCoolTM was used to replace other dressings. Improvements in healing were observed for 46 of the study wounds with reduction in exudate and improved comfort for those patients with ‘Painful’ or ‘Uncomfortable’ wounds.

Conclusions: Results of the audit confirmed earlier findings. ActiFormCoolTM produced a statistically significant reduction in wound pain with a resulting improvement in patient comfort.

Declaration of interest:This study was funded by Activa Healthcare.