In the last 10 years, MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Stephylococcus Aureus) has moved out of the hospitals and into communities, including your locker room.  Community-Associated (CA) MRSA has become one of the most serious obstacles in sports medicine today, resulting in significant losses of athlete time, seasons, and sometimes even careers.¹  No athletic trainer, physician, physical therapist, or coach wants to see his or her athletes benched due to CA-MRSA.  The CDC and others have developed prevention and treatment strategies that may be easily implemented to help prevent or treat CA-MRSA infections.^2,3 

However, the monetary and time costs remain significant.  In 2008, professional football teams spent an average of $154 million on player’s salaries, with the lowest-paid player bringing in $295,000.⁴  In the 2005 professional baseball season, Sammy Sosa missed 16 games due to a CA-MRSA infection in his foot.⁵ Sosa earned $17 million in 2005.⁶  Based on this salary, this particular CA-MRSA cost the Baltimore Orioles approximately $104,938 per game and treatment for the infection plus the loss of a star player.⁶  Not only can a CA-MRSA infection be the difference between a win or a loss but there are significant costs to having a player, especially a key player, out of play due to a CA-MRSA infection. 

PolyMem QuadraFoam dressings will help you to manage your athlete’s injuries before it costs the team the game or an athlete his or her season.

PolyMem QuadraFoam dressings continuously cleanse, fill, absorb, moisten, cover, help provide drug-free pain relief, and are available with and without antimicrobial silver. 

What are the most important benefits of the dressings for the purposes of managing CA-MRSA?

• CLEANSES: built-in cleanser continuously cleanses the wound bed while in place, no need for manual wound bed cleansing.
• COVERS: semi-permeable film backing allows for ideal moisture-vapor transfer rate and helps to protect the wound bed from contaminants.
• DRUG-FREE PAIN RELIEF: helps to intercept the nociceptor response and reduce inflammation at the wound site, allowing for reduced pain and increased range of motion.
• SILVER: PolyMem Silver does all of the above with the added benefit of silver to help further protect the wound bed from contaminants; killing 99.9% of tested organisms,* including MRSA.

PolyMem QuadraFoam dressings can also be applied post-surgically in place of standard gauze to minimize the risk of post-surgical contamination and/or infection as well as provide pain relief and inflammation control. 

PolyMem dressings may be left in place for up to 7 days, depending on the exudate/drainage level.  With the exception of dressing changes, athletes must keep the dressing on at all times, especially during showers.  If the dressing is removed prior to showering, the athlete will not receive the protection of PolyMem dressings while around possible sources of infection and will be at the same risk of infection as someone that is not using PolyMem.  If the athlete is already infected, it is best that he or she not shower with other athletes, but if he or she must, covering the wound with a dressing while showering reduces the chances of spreading the infection.  If the dressing becomes saturated during the shower, a new dressing must be applied afterwards. 

PolyMem QuadraFoam dressings are available in a variety of shapes, sizes, thicknesses, with or without adhesive tape borders, and with or without antimicrobial silver. 

For more information on the PolyMem QuadraFoam family of dressings and how to order and/or evaluate, please contact us. 

Welcome to the first edition of the PolyMem for Sports newsletter.  As medical providers in sports, we strive to prevent problems that limit an athlete to reach his/her potential.  When problems arise, we work to minimize the impact of the injury/illness to permit the athlete to achieve his or her best, and to fully recover quickly.  PolyMem and SportsWrap's QuadraFoam formulation is a tool from the burn and chronic wound care world that helps us in supporting athletes to be their best.  Since QuadraFoam formulation dressings have been introduced into sports, athletes have benefited.  As providers, we work smarter using PolyMem and SportsWrap due to the ease of product selection and application.  However, we  rely on our innovation and creativity to implement PolyMem and SportsWrap into our daily practice.  Sharing of best practices in using PolyMem and SportsWrap will benefit all providers, and I welcome you to jot down your thoughts and send them to me at eryan@polymem.com.  We will share them in the PolyMem for Sports forum and publish them in the newsletter.

Cheers,

Ed Ryan, ATC

An example of PolyMem’s ability to help quickly close an acute MRSA infected wound. 

Click to Download Case Study

"For years, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly known as "staph," had been believed to be a problem limited to hospitals. However, a new strain of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus termed "community-associated" or "community-acquired" MRSA (CA-MRSA) is infecting the sport community at alarming rates (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003)...
To read the full article Combating CA-MRSA in Physical Education, Sports, and Dance from the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance click the link below and enter the case-sensitive password from the PolyMem for Sports e-newsletter.

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Have a question or comment about QuadraFoam products or use?  Join our Sports Forum and discuss.

 

PolyMem respresentatives will be available at the following events to answer your questions:

• ACSM Advanced Team Physician Meeting in Phoenix, AZ on December 2-4, 2009
• PBATS Product Review Symposium in Indianapolis, IN on December 7, 2009
• PBATS Team Medicine Conference in San Francisco, CA on January 7-9, 2010
• Big Sky Athletic Training Sports Medicine Conference in Big Sky, MT on January 31 – February 5, 2010
• PFATS in Indianapolis, IN on February 23, 2010

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