The nurse dresses the surgical incision on the client's elbow. Which is the best method of applying a bandage for the nurse to use with this client?

Question

1. Spiral
2. Circular
3. Recurrent
4. Figure eight

Answer 1

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4. The nurse uses a figure-eight bandage to cover the client's elbow dressing because it involves oblique, overlapping turns of the gauze roll lending itself to use on a joint. By alternating the oblique turns around humerus and radial and ulnar bones, the ban-dage anchors the dressing and immobilizes the joint.
1. Overlapping, ascending turns of the spiral dressing effectively anchor a dressing to the upper or lower arm, separately, but are ineffective to secure the dressing at the elbow because the dressing anchors at the beginning and the end.
2. Bandage turns overlapping one another are similar in effectiveness for the elbow as the spiral dressing.
3. The recurrent dressing is most effective on the skull or a stump because the ban-dage folds back on it to cover the region. The nurse avoids choosing this bandage for an elbow because the nurse needs to cover a center portion of the arm versus the ter-minal end of an extremity.