Gauze & Swabs

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Gauze Swabs & Dressing Packs

Gauze swabs, gauze squares, combine pads, cotton wool and sterile dressing packs for wound cleaning, swabbing and dressing in clinics, hospitals and aged care. BIOFAST supplies these by the pack, the box and the carton, dispatched from our Keysborough warehouse in Victoria.

Woven or non-woven?

Woven gauze is traditional cotton. It is cheap, familiar and fine for cleaning and swabbing. Its drawback is linting: cut or frayed edges shed fibres, and fibres left in a wound bed act as a foreign body.

Non-woven gauze is a synthetic blend bonded rather than woven. It lints far less, absorbs more per gram, is softer against skin and does not fray when cut. It costs a little more per swab and is the better choice anywhere the swab contacts an open wound.

If you stock one, stock non-woven. If you stock both, keep woven for general cleaning and non-woven for wound contact.

Ply and size

Ply is the number of layers. 4-ply suits light swabbing and cleaning; 8-ply and 12-ply absorb more and suit heavier exudate or use as a secondary pad. Combine pads are a high-absorbency layered pad for heavy exudate, used over a primary dressing rather than directly on a granulating wound.

Common sizes are 5 x 5cm for small wounds and swabbing, 7.5 x 7.5cm as the general-purpose size, and 10 x 10cm for larger areas. Stocking two sizes rather than one usually cuts waste, because staff stop using an oversized swab for a small job.

Sterile or non-sterile

Sterile swabs come in sealed packs, usually of 2, 3 or 5, and are used wherever asepsis is required: wound dressing, invasive procedures, anything on broken skin. Non-sterile swabs come in bulk packs and are for clean procedures, general cleaning and non-invasive use. Buying only sterile is wasteful; buying only non-sterile is unsafe. Most sites need both.

A note on gauze as a primary dressing

Gauze is a cleaning and secondary-layer product. Laid directly on a granulating wound and allowed to dry, it adheres to the new tissue and tears it away at the next change, which sets healing back and hurts. Where a non-adherent contact layer, foam, alginate or hydrocolloid is indicated, use one and keep the gauze as the absorbent layer above it.

Dressing packs

Sterile dressing packs bundle the swabs, gallipot, forceps and drape for a single procedure in one sealed tray, which saves setup time and reduces the chance of breaking the sterile field mid-procedure. We stock basic and extended packs.