Quick release bandage that can be removed without damaging skin

Every year, over 1.5 mln people suffer scarring and skin irritation from medical tape. Majority of them are infants or elderly people, who have fragile skin. It is specially hard on premature babies who are hooked up to tubes and monitors. A premature baby�s skin can rip more easily than bandage tape. Biomedical engineers from MIT and Brigham and Women�s Hospital in Boston developed a new kind of medical tape; one that can be removed without damaging skin. The medical tape will stick but can still be peeled apart easily, without yanking skin or body hair off along with it. MIT news reported about the research behind the new medical tape. A standard medical tape backing is made of a thin sheet of polymer such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). To create the new middle layer, the researchers coated the side that contacts the adhesive with a thin layer of silicone, forming what is called a release liner. This liner is very similar to the strips of slick paper that you have to peel from a Band-Aid before putting it on your skin. The researchers found that adding this layer alone made it too easy for the tape to be pulled off, so they etched grid lines into the silicone with a laser, exposing some of the PET backing. The PET sticks to the adhesive layer more strongly, so the researchers can control the adhesiveness of the release liner by altering how much of the PET is revealed by the grid lines.

Kahp-Yang Suh, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Seoul National University but not part of the research says, �What is innovative here is to create a dual functional adhesive interface, while generating no skin irritation upon detachment. Also, the ability to control peeling force via release-layer micropatterning will offer a versatile route to other types of adhesives.� Researchers have filed for a patent on the new medical tape and are now working to secure regulatory approval for safety tests on human adults.