The vision and scope of the prophylactic dressing standard initiative of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel and National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel

[...]the products that have been evaluated and/or marketed for prophylactic use have substantially different characteristics related to pressure ulcer/injury prevention. [...]EN 13726 has been criticised in the literature for lack of clinical relevance. [...]the application of dressings for prophylaxis is not currently addressed in any existing test standard, including in the EN 13726. [...]despite there being some overlap between characteristics important to pressure ulcer/injury prevention and factors important to wound healing, the PDSI chose to limit its scope to prophylactic use of dressings only, and as related to pressure ulcers/injuries (but not other wound aetiologies), to focus energy on the current urgent need for validated methods to compare dressing products for these preventative purposes.