A ^Retired Plastic Surgeon's Notebook

Tag: Canadians Saving Health Care Dollars


Canadians Saving Health Care Dollars

January 13th, 2011 — 9:50am

sc00001fbaSeattle Plastic Surgeon Comes Across a Very Interesting Article in a Canadian Journal

I was cleaning my desk this morning (that’s a few blog entries in itself) and stumbled upon an article I has saved from a 2006 issue of the Canadia Journal of Plastic Surgery. This article compared the sterility and cost of “sterile wound dressings” and more common absorbtive items such as panty lines, sanitary napkins and disposable (duh) diapers.

Not suprising was the cost difference with the common items being a fraction of the cost of “sterile wound dressings”. For example, one month supply of panty liners cost $2.43 vs. $16.50 for one month supply of sterile dressings. The surprising finding was that the common items were as sterile as the “sterile dressings”. A small percentage of all items tested grew various common bacteria when cultured.

I have been recommending panty lines or sanitary napkins as dressing to my patients ever since I first read this paper. They look at me kind of funny and are always a little shocked when I refer to this article. Maybe this is why Canadian health care is so much less costly that ours???

General Health, Health Care Costs, Now That's a Little Weird, Plastic Surgery, Postoperative Care

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