CA1334642C - Adhesive plaster, plaster support tape and plaster dispensing case therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

An adhesive plaster comprising a plaster substrate made of a highly liquid-absorbing porous texture, a solid core member made of a synthetic resin film, which is bonded at the upper surface thereof to the lower surface of the plaster substrate, in which the core member is perforated at the central portion thereof to define a cavity or bore for covering a wound portion of a skin surface and an adhesive region is formed on the lower surface of an annular peripheral portion around the central cavity.
A plurality of such adhesive plasters are releasably arranged successively on a plaster support tape, which is desirably incorporated in a plaster dispensing case for successively pulling out and appending individual plasters on the skin surface. The plaster can be applied to the skin surface after the injection or the like easily and rapidly with no worry of blood contamination, accidental infection, etc.

Description

t 334642 This invention concerns an adhesive plaster used for protecting a wound formed on a skin surface, for example, by an injection needle and stopping bleeding therefrom upon applying injection, transfusion, etc. This invention also relates to a plaster support tape having a plurality of such plasters releasably arranged thereon, as well as to a plaster dispensing case for containing such a plaster support tape and dispensing the plasters successively.
Adhesive plasters or first aid bandages are often used for temporarily protecting a wound caused by an injection needle or the like after applying injection, transfusion, etc. till bleeding stops by the hemostatic action of blood, so as to prevent contamination to patients' wears or to prevent percutaneous infection.
As a conventional way of applying plasters to the skin surface, pressure-sensitive adhesives have usually been coated on the rear side of plasters. However, if a relatively large amount of blood is bled though a wound, it wets and makes the adhesives ineffective and often causes the bonded plaster to be fallen from the skin surface. In such a case, the blood will contaminate patients' wears, etc.
Further, the adhesives coated on the plaster give undesirable stimulations to the skin surface of a living body, particularly, to the injured epidermis and possibly cause contact epidermatis such as epidermallergosis.
In addition, intimate contact between the plaster and the skin surface may possibly lead to undesirable sudamina-causing sweaty condition due to respiration if the plaster is left over a long period of time.
Furthermore, since the conventional adhesive plasters are usually made of soft and rlexible cloth material, they tend to crease easily or adhere to a finger thus bringing about a difficulty in handling them.
It is particularly inconvenient to apply a plurality of adhesive plasters of a small size, for example, of about one-half inch square successively in a case of mass inoculation, etc.
Moreover, awkward handling by unskilled operators often causes pollution to the adhesive surface of the plasters and may possibly cause a risk of accidental bacterial or virus infection through a patients' wound or, adversely, bring about dangerous infection to an operator by way of the blood of a patient suffering from highly inrective disease.
In view of the above, an adhesive bandage comprising a central wound-facing pad area and adjacent adhesive coated area has been proposed, for example, in U.S. Patent No. 4530353. In this patented adhesive bandage, the central portion is Z-folded to form a pad of triple thickness facing wound skin while the adjacent areas are heat calendered to provide a surface suitable for coating with adhesives (for example, in Figures 1 - 5 of the U.S. patent). The sheet-like material thus formed is then cut into individual unitary bandages as shown in Fig. 6 of the patent.
The bandage of the cited patent is surely effective since the wound-facing central pad 25 carries no adhesive and the band age can be applied by way of adjacent areas 28, 29 coated with adhesives 30, 31.
However, since the bandage is entirely made of soft and flexible material such as non-woven fabrics, it is not so convenient upon practical use as has been described above, particularly, if the size of the unitary bandage is relatively small. In addition, since each of the unitary bandages is usually combined with a releasable sheet when stored in a container or casing, individual bandages have to be applied upon use arter removing the releasable sheets respectively, which is very much troublesome and time consuming because of the soft and flexible structure of the non-woven fabrics.

Accordingly, it has been demanded to develop an adhesive plaster that can be handled with ease, reliably fixed to the wound skin surface and stop the bleeding, while keeping the adhesives from contact with the wound on the skin surface.
S It has also been demanded a practical tool that can successively and automatically apply a plurality of adhesive plasters rapidly and easily while keeping sanitary condition in view of accidental infection.
The present invention provides an adhesive plaster capable of easily and reliably protecting wound skin surface after injection, transfusion, etc.
The present invention also provides an adhesive plaster support tape having a plurality of adhesive plasters releasably arranged on the surface thereof, and capable of applying them individually to a patient's wound skin surface easily and rapidly with no risk of infection or contamination.
The present invention again provides a plaster dispensing case containing a plaster support tape therein and capable of appending a plurality of adhesive plasters on the support, support one by one rapidly and easily.

The present invention thus provides an adhesive plaster comprising:
a plaster substrate made of a highly liquid-absorbing porous texture, and a solid core member made of a resilient synthetic resin film, which is bonded at the upper surface thereof to the lower surface of the plaster substrate, in which the core member is perforated at the central portion thereof to define a cavity or bore for covering a wound portion of a skin surface and an adhesive region is formed on the lower surface of an annular peripheral portion around the central cavity.
When the adhesive plaster according to this invention is applied, blood bleeding through the wound of a skin surface formed by a needle of injection or transfusion is stored in the cavity of the core member and coagulated by its hemostatic activity. If the amount of the bleeding blood is relatively large and can not fully be contained in the cavity, excess blood can be absorbed and retained in the highly liquid-absorbing porous texture of the plaster substrate and coagulated therein.
Since the adhesive region to the skin surface is formed only in the annular peripheral portion around the central cavity at the lower surface of the core member, this peripheral adhesive region is scarcely brought into contact and wetted with the blood and, accordingly, the adhesive effect thereof is not lost by bleeding and the adhesive plaster can surely be bonded to the skin surface with no detachment.
Further, since the annular periphery of the core member coated with the adhesives is not in direct contact with the wound, undesirable stimulation that would other-wise cause contact epidermatis, etc. is not given to the injured surface skin. In addition since the wound portion is contained within the cavity of the core member, it is kept from intimate contact with the plaster substrate thereby capable of avoiding undesired sweaty condition.
Particularly, since the plaster substrate is backed with the resilient core member, an adequate resilient strength is given to the entire plaster to facilitate the handling thereof. That is, the plaster can be handled easily with no creasing and it can be released almost spontaneously from the plaster support tape as described later.
In the adhesive plaster according to this invention, the plaster substrate is preferably composed of non-woven fabrics for attaining high liquid-absorbability and liquid-retainability. Non-woven fabrics are, preferabiy, made of natural or synthetic cellulose fibers. Natural fibers such as of cotton is particularly preferred.
In a preferred embodiment, the plaster substrate has a liquid impermeable barrier film such as made of a synthetic film laminated on the upper surface thereof. Even if remarkable bleeding occurs and excess blood is leached out from the surface of the plaster substrate, the liquid S impermeable barrier film can prevent such excess blood from bleeding externally and contaminating patients' wears, etc.
The present invention also provides a plaster support tape comprising an elongate soft and flexible thin film tape having a non-tacky smooth surface and a plurality of adhesive plasters releasably supported on the surface of the film tape along the longitudinal direction thereof at a predetermined interval, each of the adhesive plasters comprising:
a plaster substrate made of a highly liquid-absorbing porous texture, and a solid core member made of a resilient synthetic resin film, which is bonded at the upper surface thereof to the lower surface of the plaster substrate, in which the core member is perforated at the central portion thereof to define a cavity or bore for covering a wound portion of a skin surface and an adhesive region is formed on the lower surface of an annular peripheral portion around the central cavity.
In this case, each of the individual adhesive plasters can easily be separated from the film tape by merely bending the tape with an acute angle at a position where the plaster is attached.
Namely, the unitary plaster is once bent together with the bent portion of the film tape. However, the resilient film of the core member backing the plaster substrate can not remain in the state as it is bent sharply but tends to resume its original flat form due to its resiliency and springs up against the bonding strength of the adhesives. As a result, the entire adhesive plaster is spontaneously released from the surface of the film tape. Thus, the plasters can be separated spontaneously and appended successively by merely bending or turning the adhesive support tape. Thus, an operator is free from the troublesome labour of peeling individual releasing paper, etc. from the back of the small plaster as experienced so far.
The present invention also provides a plaster dispensing case for dispensing a plurality of adhesive plasters arranged and supported releasably on the surface of a plaster support tape contained therein, wherein the plaster dispensing case comprises:
a case main body for containing a roll body of a plaster support tape in such a manner as capable of rotationally unwinding the plaster support tape therefrom, means in the form of a slit formed through the circumferential wall of the case main body for pulling out the forward end of the plaster support tape out of the case main body, means in the form of a member having a rounded edge disposed to the case main body on one side of the slit for engaging and turning the plaster support tape up-side-down and guiding the thus reversed tape in the direction sub-stantially opposite to the pulling direction, and means in the form of a plate disposed on the other side of the slit and extended integrally from the case main body for holding the adhesive plaster released from the surface of the support tape upon turning the direction of the forward end and appending the thus separated plaster to the skin surface.
When the forward end of the the soft and flexible plaster support tape is unwound from the roll body and pulled out through the slit, it is bent abruptly along the tape engaging and turning means. Then, an adhesive plaster releasably bonded to the surface Or the plaster support tape is spontaneously separated due to its resiliency and then fallen on the tape holding means with the adhesive surface being faced upwardly. Then, by pressing the tape holding means to the skin surface, the adhesive plaster can be bonded to the skin.
Since individual plasters are successively separated from the plaster support tape by merely pulling out the forward end of the plaster support tape intermittently out of the case main body and the plasters are placed successively on the tape holding means, a plurality of plasters can be appended one by one rapidly and easily.
Furthermore, since the operator contacts only at the forward end of the plaster support tape upon handling, the adhesive surface of the plaster is free from the risk of contamination upon appending operation.
In a preferred embodiment of the plaster dispensing case according to this invention, the case main body comprises a pair of mating upper and lower members each prepared by one-piece molding from synthetic thermoplastic resin and joined to each other. Since this embodiment can be mass-produced at a reduced cost, it can be manufactured as a disposal type if required. Since the case is sterilized after containing the plaster support tape therein and since it is discarded after dispensing up all of the individual adhesive plasters, a quite sanitary condition can be obtained for the case and the plaster support tape.
Advantageous features of this invention will become more apparent by the following descriptions for preferred embodiments according to this invention while referring to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Figure 1 is an enlarged vertical cross sectional view of an adhesive plaster according to this invention;
Figure 2 and Figure 3 are enlarged vertical cross sectional view illustrating the intermediate steps of manufacturing the adhesive plaster;
Figure 4 is an explanatory view illustrating the final step of manufacturing the adhesive plaster;
Figure 5 is an explanatory view illustrating the state in which the adhesive plaster is being separated from the plaster support tape;
Figure 6 is an exploded view illustrating the tape dispensing case according to this invention; and Figure 7 is a perspective view illustrating the state of use of the tape dispensing case.

Adhesive Plaster Explanation is to be made at first for a preferred embodiment of an adhesive plaster according to this invention referring to Figure 1, which shows an enlarged vertical cross section of a unitary adhesive plaster.
As shown in Figure 1, an adhesive plaster 1 of this embodiment comprises a disk-like plaster substrate 2 made on non-woven fabrics composed of cotton cellulose fibers having highly liquid-absorbing property, about 15 mm in diameter and O.S mm in thickness (hereinafter simply referred to as a liquid-absorbing disk 2) and an annular solid core member 3 made of a relatively tough and elastic polyethylene terephthalate film about 15 mm in diameter and 0.1 mm in thickness (hereinafter simply referred to as a core film 3). The core film 3 has a central circular bore or cavity 4 of a sufficient area to cover a wound on the skin surface formed by an injection needle or the like. Pressure-sensitive adhesives made of an acrylic polymer which is less stimulative to the wound skin are coated to the annular peripheral portion 5 on the lower side of the core film 3 to constitute an adhesive region 6.
The peripheral annular portion on the upper surface of the core film 3 is bonded by means of an adhesive layer 7 to the lower surface of the liquid-absorbing disk 2.
A liquid impermeable barrier layer 8 made of a poly-ethylene terephthalate film about 30 um in thickness is laminated to the upper surface of the liquid-absorbing disk 2. Individual adhesive plasters 1 are arranged releasably on a plaster support tape 9 made of a plastic film tape to be detailed later.
The way of using such an adhesive plaster 1 will at first be explained briefly referring to Figure 1.
When the adhesive plaster 1 is released from the plaster support tape 9, the adhesive region 6 is exposed at the annular periphery 5 on the lower surface of the core film 3.
Then, the adhesive plaster 1 is applied under a slight pressure to the skin surface such that a wound on the skin surface caused by an in;ection needle or the like is included in the central cavity 4 Or the core film 3.
The adhesive plaster 1 is bonded to the skin surface by the adhesive region 6 formed at the annular periphery 5, by which the entire adhesive plaster 1 is firmly fixed to and protect the wound skin surface.
In this embodiment, since the area of the circular cavity 4 is made large enough, it is relatively easy to apply the adhesive plaster 1 such that the wound skin surface may be situated within the area Or the cavity 4.
A small amount of blood bled out of the wound will gradually be coagulated by its hemostatic function. In the prior art adhesive plaster, blood before coagulation some time wets the adhesives at the rear face of the adhesive plaster to inactivate the adhesive function and often causes the plaster to defoliate.
While on the other hand in this embodiment, a small amount of blood is coagulated before it fully fills the cavity 4 Or the core film 3 and scarcely intrudes to the adhesive region 6 in the adjacent periphery 5. Accordingly, the adhesive function of the adhesive plaster 1 is not lost. Further, even if the amount of bleeding is so large as can not fully be contained in the cavity 4, excess blood is rapidly absorbed to the highly liquid-absorbing non-woven cotton fabrics of the liquid-absorbing disk 2 and, therefore, it is substantially kept from contact with the adhesive region 6 at the annular periphery 5. Further-more, if excess blood should happen to be leached out from the liquid-absorbing disk 2, since the upper surface of the disk 2 is covered with the liquid-impermeable barrier layer 8, there is no worry that patient's wears, etc. are contaminated by the blood.
In addition, since the wound on the skin surface is contained to the inside of the cavity 4 and not brought into direct contact with the adhesive region 6, undesirable chemical stimulation to the in~ured skin tissue can be avoided. Moreover, since the portion of the skin at or near the wound is contained in the cavity 4 and kept from intimate contact with the disk 2, undesired sweaty condi-tion due to perspiration can be kept as less as possible.

Plaster Support Tape The adhesive plaster 1 shown in Figure 1 is preferably arranged releasably on the plaster support tape 9 at a predetermined interval along the longitudinal direction Or the support tape for the sake of easy handling.
A preferred embodiment of the plaster support tape used in this invention will now be explained while refer-ring to Figures 2 through 4, in which corresponding com-ponents to those in Figure 1 carry the same reference numerals.

The plaster support tape 9 carrying a plurality of adhesive plasters 1 arranged thereon can be manufactured, for example, by a series of successive steps as described below.
As shown in Figure 2, adhesive layers 6 and 7 made of pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesives are formed on upper and lower surfaces Or a core film 3 made of polyethylene terephthalate and the core film 3 in the form Or a so-do.) ~
called bv~h face adhesive tape is bonded to the smooth releasing surface of the support tape 9 also made Or polyethylene terephthalate about 0.1 mm in thickness.
Then, a silicon-coated releasable sheet 10 used only during the manufacturing step is appended to the upper surface of the core film 3, to constitute an intermediate lamination product.
Then, the intermediate lamination product is applied with die punching to form a series of perforations each of a size corresponding to that of the cavity 4 as shown on the right of Figure 2 at a predetermined longitudinal interval. Then, the releasable sheet 10 is removed to expose the adhesive layer 7 at the upper surface as shown on the left Or Figure 2.
Next, as shown in Figure 3, non-woven cotton fabric layer as the material for the liquid-absorbing disk 2, laminated with a polyethylene terephthalate film 8 attached on its upper surface, is bonded to the adhesive layer 7 to obtain a final laminate. Then, a so-called half-die cut is applied to form a series of disk-like products each corresponding to the adhesive plaster 1 shown in Figure 1, while leaving only the releasable film tape 9 uncut.
Then, as shown in Figure 4, when the remaining por-tions other than the disk-like products are removed from the final laminate, an adhesive support tape 9 can be obtained, in which a plurality of adhesive plasters 1 are arranged on the support tape 9 at a predetermined longitudinal interval as shown in Figures 3 and 4.
The principle of using such a plaster support tape 9 is schematically shown in Figure 5.
In Figure 5, the forward end of the plaster support tape 9 is engaged over the outer circumference of a tape engaging and turning member (illustrated as a round bar E
only for the sake of the simplicity) and then turned with an acute angle under sliding contact with the member E and guided substantially in the reverse direction. In this case, as the soft and flexible support tape 9 is bent forcibly by the pulling force, the adhesive plaster 1 releasably bonded to the surface of the tape 9 is also bent together. However, since the core film 3 in the plaster 1 (shown in Figure 1) is considerably tough and elastic, it tends to be sprung back and straightened by its resiliency. Then, the entire plaster 1 defoliates spontaneously from the smooth surface of the plaster support tape 9 against the bonding strength of the adhesives.
In this way, successive plasters 1 can be released one by one in the same way by merely pulling the plaster support tape intermittently along the turning path.
Accordingly, a plurality of adhesive plasters 1 arranged collectively on the plaster support tape 9 can be spontaneously released from the surface of the support tape 9 appended to the skin surface.
The use of the plaster support tape is particularly favorable in such a case where a plurality Or plasters are used succesively, for example, in mass preventive inocula-tion.
Such a plaster support tape can be used more effec-tively when it is combined with a plaster dispensing case according to this invention to be described just below for dispensing individual adhesive plasters one by one from the plaster support tape and then securely applying them with no troublesome contact with finger or the like.

Plaster Dispensing Case Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view for a plaster dispensing case according to this invention which is conve-niently used for applying a plurality of individual adhesive plasters rapidly and successively.
As shown in Figure 6, a plaster dispensing case main ~' body 31 comprises a pair of an upper case member 32 and a lower case member 33 each formed by means of one-piece injection molding from transparent polypropylene resin.
The upper case member 32 has engaging female members 34B formed to four corners at the inside thereof, while the lower case member 33 has engaging male members 34A
formed to four corners at the inside thereof respectively.
The case members 32 and 33 are tightly fitted to each other along a seam line 35.
The case main body 31 has a tape exit in the form of a slit 37 formed through the circumferential wall at its upper right corner for pulling out the plaster support tape 9 from a roll body 36 of the tape in the direction of arrow A (as shown in Fig. 7) .
A plaster hold plate 38 is disposed integrally with the upper case member 32 in adjacent with one side of the slit 37.
A tape engaging and turning member 39 is formed on the other side of the slit 37, so that the forward end of the tape 9 pulled out of the case main body 31 through the slit 37 is turned up-side-down along the rounded edge of the turning member 39 and then guided in the direction of arrow B substantially opposite to the direction A (Figure 7) .
A guide member 40 is integrally formed to the case member 32 for guiding the forward end of the tape 9 through the gap between the guide member 40 and the outer `- 1 334642 circumference Or the lower case member 33.
In the tape dispensing case of thls illustrated embodiment, the roll body 36 of the support tape 9 is rotatably enhoused to the inside of the case 31 so that the forward end of the plaster support tape 9 can be rotationally unwound therefrom and pulled out through the slit 37 to the outside of the upper case member 32. Then, the lower case member 33 is combined to the upper case member 32 while engaging the mating male and female members 34A and 34B to each other and tightly fitted along the seam line 35. The case main body 31 thus assembled is sterilized together with the roll body 36 by means of ethylene oxide gas or the like.

Use of the Plaster Dispensing Case When individual adhesive plasters 1 are intended to be applied to a plurality of patients successively, the forward end of the plaster support tape 9 is at first pulled out through the slit 37 to the plaster hold plate 38 in the direction of arrow A, then turned up-side-down and engaged along the rounded edge of the tape engaging and turning member 39 and then guided in the direction of the arrow B substantially opposed to the direction of the arrow A beneath the guide 40.
When the plaster support tape 19 is thus turned abruptly at the edge of the turning member 39, the adhesive plaster 1 releasably appended to the surface of the support tape 9 is spontaneously detached therefrom by the resilient repulsion due to the tough and resilient nature of the plaster core film 3 as described before referring to Figure 5. The separated adhesive plaster 1 is rallen and placed on the plaster hold plate 38 with the adhesive region 6 (Figure 1) separated from the tape sur-face being faced upwardly. Then, the case main body 32 is handled so that the adhesive plaster 1 on the plaster hold tape 38 is urged to the wound skin surface, by which the adhesive plaster 1 is firmly bonded to the skin.
Subsequent adhesive plasters 1, 1, --- are also handled in the same way and each of the individual adhe-sive plasters 1 can be separated spontaneously from the plaster support tape 9 by merely pulling the plaster support tape 9 out of the case 31. Since each of the adhesive plasters 1 can automatically be separated from the support tape 9 and placed to the plaster hold plate ~JI o~ J
38, a plurality of adhesive plasters can be ~ppon~od rapidly and easily one by one to a plurality of patients.
Further, since the finger of an operator does not touch the adhesive plaster 1 during appending operation, there is no worry that the adhesive surface Or the plaster 1 may be contaminated, as well as there is less possibility that G~ r~J
the operator's finger should happen to be pollutod by patient's blood.

Further, since the adhesive plasters 1 are sterilized under the condition that they are enclosed within the case 31 and since the case 31 is be used only for once and then discarded after all of the adhesive plasters contained therein have been used up, sanitary conditions can be kept.

Test Example The adhesive plasters according to this invention were tested in the internal and pediatric departments of National Kokura Hospital (Kita-Kyushu city, Japan) as after-treatment of subcutenous injection (140 cases), intravenous injection (50 cases) and intramuscular injection (400 cases) by using various injection needles sized from 22 to 27 gages.
In all of the cases, bleeding after injection was completely stopped and blood pollution or like other trouble did not occur. Only for several examples of intravenous injection using 22 gage needles, stopping for bleeding was found somewhat incomplete but this could be overcome by slightly urging the adhesive plaster for about several seconds after the injection. Neither contact dermatitis nor contact infection attributable to the adhesive plasters was recognized at all in all of the cases.
The adhesive plasters according to this invention were highly evaluated both by patients and operators ~ - 21 -because they were free from the worry of blood contami-nations to wears, accidents of bacteria or virus infection etc.

Claims (3)

1. An adhesive plaster support tape, used for covering and protecting a wound on a patient's skin formed by an injection needle or the like, comprising:
an elongate soft and flexible thin film tape (9) having a non-tacky smooth surface; and a plurality of adhesive plasters (1) releasably supported on the surface of the film tape (9) along the longitudinal direction thereof at a predetermined interval, each of the adhesive plasters (1) having an integrated laminate structure including:
a plaster substrate (2) made of a highly liquid-absorbing porous texture, and a solid core member (3) made of a resilient synthetic resin film, more rigid than said film tape (9), which is bonded at an upper surface thereof to a lower surface of the plaster substrate (2), in which the core member (3) is perforated at a central portion to define a central bottom cavity or bore (4) and a pressure sensitive adhesive region (6) is formed at an annular portion (5) around the central bottom cavity (4), said cavity having a sufficient area and height to contain said wound portion of a skin surface.

2. An adhesive paster support tape as defined in claim 1, wherein the plaster substrate (2) is made of non-woven fabrics.

3. An adhesive plaster support tape as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the surface of said film tape (9) has been subject to a releasing treatment.