What Is Yellow Gauze Used For? Xeroform Dressing Explained
What is yellow gauze used for?
The Quick Answer
**Yellow gauze (Xeroform)** is a petrolatum-impregnated dressing with 3% bismuth tribromophenate used to maintain moist wound healing for open wounds, skin grafts, burns, and surgical sites. It prevents dressing adherence, provides mild antimicrobial action, and supports autolytic debridement—typically changed daily to maintain optimal moisture balance.
Why We Ask This
Patients confuse yellow gauze with infected drainage or inappropriate dressing choice, leading to premature removal that disrupts healing or unnecessary anxiety about 'yellow = infection' when it's actually therapeutic dressing material.
The Practical Science
Xeroform's petrolatum base creates an occlusive barrier reducing transepidermal water loss by 70% versus dry gauze, while bismuth tribromophenate provides broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against common wound pathogens without cytotoxicity to fibroblasts.
In Clinical Practice
After split-thickness skin grafting, Xeroform is applied directly to the graft site, covered with absorptive dressing, and changed daily—preventing shear trauma during removal while maintaining the moist environment critical for graft take rates exceeding 95%.
References & Context
Changing Your Xeroform Dressing - Health Online"Xeroform is a yellow gauze dressing. It is often put on open wounds and skin grafts to help keep them moist. Your doctor will tell you how often to change your dressing. This is usually once a day."