To all Veterinary Clinics – Have you ever used Velcro hook & loop products to assist in skin stretching ?

 V Tapes have recently had a Vet at Vet Marlborough, in Blenheim  carry surgery out using the assistance from V Tapes hook & loop products, the ; 25 mm wide Black PS0172 hook only tape along with 25 mm wide Expando loop tape. 

This is not a new method, it has been used overseas, and after much researching the Vet in Marlborough found that the following method using hook & loop tape was the best solution to gain more skin in view of closing up wounds. 

The idea being to attach a series of velcro hook pads to the edges of the skin around the wound, and the use of stretchy loop tape between the hook pads. 

Every 8 hours tighten the straps over a 72 hour period and the skin relaxes and stretches. 

The patient was a small Japanese Spitz dog with 2 large wounds on her back and thorax. These were due to the owner running her over with their car accidently, and she developed massive skin necrosis and skin loss over the weeks following the accident.

The plan was to use a skin stretching device made from velcro to put approximately 0.4-1kg of tension on the skin around the wound over 72 hours (tightening the straps every 8 hours). This would take advantage of the mechanical creep and stress relaxation of the skin and result in extra skin to use in reconstructive surgery to try and close the huge wounds.

The velcro was found to be easy to cut and place around the wounds. The stretchy velcro was great to work with and a digital fish scale was used to help determine the amount of tension to put on the velcro straps. I had some issues with adherence of the Adhesive glue to the patient to keep the velcro in place, but this was due to the skin of the patient being moist most of the time due to the large open wounds discharging and needing to keep the wound and velcro under a bandage. If used on dry skin, then the Adhesive glue would have had better adherence.

The Velcro was tolerated exceptionally well by the patient with no attempt to chew off the bandage or Velcro Strapping. 

 Pic 2.  photo below – Applying Velcro straps using Digital Fish Scales to measure tension

Results ;   Overall it gave a certain amount of extra skin around the wound but this would have been more if not for the  scar tissue around half of the wound making the skin very inelastic. This procedure helped with Primary closure of the wound without multiple surgeries under general anaesthesia and resulted in a full recovery of the patient.

The Velcro would work even better to stretch skin prior to removing large skin tumours  (where there is no scar tissue)  Skin stretching devices have been shown to be particularly useful with planning and preparation of skin prior to removal or large mammary tumours overseas. 

For More Information on this Skin Stretching Procedure : 

V Tapes can give access to more  photos and information. Please do not hesitate to contact us on sales@vtapes.co.nz

V Tapes can also provide a contact at Vet Marlborough Veterinary Clinic for more information on this procedure in view of assisting other Vets using the same method.