It used to be so simple.
You were a kid. You fell down, and skinned your knee. You cried.
Mom came to the rescue, washed off your wound - let's use the technical term, which is "boo-boo" or "owie" - and applied hydrogen peroxide or mercurochrome. You cried again.
She opened the little can that holds the adhesive bandages, and depending on the extent of your owie, selected the wide kind, or the skinny little one or the dot, and stuck it on. When it was time to peel off the bandage, it hurt. You cried some more.
But today if mom needs to reach for a bandage, her choices go far beyond just size or shape. The consumer market for adhesive bandages has exploded in the past decade or so, driven, say industry spokesmen and medical professionals, by technological advances in hospitals.
Lisa Corbett, an advanced-practice registered nurse with the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, says the improved treatment of chronic nonhealing wounds, those that persist longer than 30 days, has spun off products now available to the public.
So mom now is faced with store shelves jam-packed with products: liquid and spray-on bandages, ionized-silver bandages or waterproof or moist-environment-promoting or easy-to-remove bandages. Or anti-itch, anti-bleeding or anti-bacterial bandages. Not to mention bandages shaped to fit fingers or knuckles, or medicated to minimize scars or cushioned to heal blisters. There are eye-catching bandages for kids, decorated with licensed cartoon characters or tattoo designs, and clear ones that appeal to adults because they don't catch the eye.
"At first, it seems like a challenge to navigate" among all these choices, says Todd Andrews, a spokesman for CVS Corp. "But it's a real benefit to consumers."
Just as there have been advances in treating heart disease, Andrews says, there have been "leaps forward in technology in wound care and management products." The diversity "seems daunting, but is useful," he says, noting that as hospital stays grow shorter, postoperative wound care is increasingly being managed at home.
According to a report posted on MarketResearch.com, 60 percent to 70 percent of adhesive bandages in the United States are used on children, and those with licensed images account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the entire market.