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Objective:There are no well-defined criteria for assessing the efficacy and quality of wound dressings, and evaluation is often simplistic and based on the subjective opinion of the health-care professional. The aim of this study was to identify specific parameters suitable for measuring dressings' performance, and to recommend laboratory tests able to evaluate these specific criteria in an objective manner.Method:After reviewing all tests currently used in Italy and examining the criteria for evaluating the quality of dressings, the authors selected 12 clinically significant parameters. These parameters were measured using standard and non-standard tests, and in some cases, these tests were modified and improved to simulate real-life conditions more accurately.Results:Most of the tests used were able to discriminate well between dressings belonging to different brands, with some tests being more suitable than others for the assessment of specific dressings.Conclusion:These results highlighted some issues in the standard testing procedures, such as the need of a suitable fluid that mimics the real exudate, and the importance of standard temperature and humidity conditions during testing. Our study paves the way for a larger project aimed at a systematic evaluation of dressing quality able to assess every wound dressing on the market.

Multiple chondromatous hamartomas (MCH) of the lung are very rare: only 16 cases have been reported to date. In young women, the tumours may be a manifestation of Carney triad (gastric leiomyoblastoma, pulmonary hamartoma and extra-adrenal paraganglioma) or Cowden syndrome (mucocutaneous lesions, multiple benign tumors of internal organs and increased risk for breast, thyroid, urogenital and digestive tract cancer). We report the 17th case of MCH of the lung, diagnosed accidentally in a 66 year-old male patient, with suspected concomitant hamartomas and malignant tumours.