Smith+Nephew Allevyn Life Advanced Foam Dressing — Five Independent Layers, EXULOCK Technology, 3 Shapes, 7 Sizes

The only five-layer foam dressing with independent, non-bonded layers that absorb mechanical shear energy within the dressing itself — not by transferring it to the patient's soft tissue. Proven in a randomized controlled trial to reduce sacral pressure injury incidence by 71%. EXULOCK locks exudate under pressure. EXUMASK hides strikethrough. Quadrilobe, Y-heel, and sacrum shapes for the three highest-risk wound sites. Smith+Nephew Allevyn Life is a multi-layered silicone-adhesive composite hydrocellular foam dressing built for two simultaneous clinical purposes: managing exudate from moderate-to-heavily draining wounds, and defending against the mechanical forces — pressure, shear, and friction — that cause and worsen pressure injuries. Its five distinct layers are not bonded to each other, which is the structural feature that makes Allevyn Life mechanically different from every other bordered foam dressing: the layers slide against each other to absorb and dissipate frictional energy within the dressing body, absorbing 30–45% of mechanical energy before it reaches the patient's skin and underlying tissue. Available in seven sizes across three anatomically designed shapes — quadrilobe, Y-heel, and sacrum with tail — each engineered for a specific challenging wound location.

✔ Five Independent Non-Bonded Layers — Absorb 30–45% of Mechanical Shear Energy    ✔ EXULOCK Technology — Locks Exudate & Bacteria Under Pressure    ✔ EXUMASK Change Indicator — Know When to Change, Not When to Guess    ✔ Masking Layer — Reduces Visual Strikethrough, Supports Patient Confidence    ✔ 71% Reduction in Sacral Pressure Injury Incidence (RCT)    ✔ Silicone Contact Layer — Repositionable, Pain-Minimizing    ✔ 3 Shapes × 7 Sizes — Quadrilobe, Y-Heel, Sacrum

Product Details & Available Sizes

Quadrilobe Sizes

Heel Size

Sacrum Sizes

Indicated For — Wound Types & Uses

• Moderate to heavily exuding chronic wounds — pressure injuries, venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, arterial ulcers
• Acute wounds — traumatic wounds, surgical wounds, skin tears
• Partial thickness burns
• Pressure injury prevention — prophylactic use on intact skin at high risk of pressure injury development as part of a comprehensive prevention protocol
• Sacral pressure injuries — treatment and prevention; dedicated sacrum shape addresses highest-risk pressure injury site
• Heel pressure injuries — treatment and prevention; dedicated Y-heel shape engineered for posterior heel anatomy
• Fragile or sensitive periwound skin — silicone contact layer suitable for use on skin at risk of adhesive trauma

Contraindications: Do not use with oxidizing agents (hypochlorite solutions, hydrogen peroxide). Discontinue use if reddening or sensitization occurs. Not indicated for third-degree burns.

The Five Independent Layers — Why Non-Bonded Construction Changes the Clinical Equation

Most multi-layer foam dressings are built with bonded layers — each layer is laminated to the layers above and below it, creating a unified composite structure. This bonded construction is mechanically efficient for fluid management: all layers work together as a single unit to absorb and retain exudate. But bonded construction has a fundamental limitation for pressure injury prevention. When external mechanical forces — shear, friction, and pressure from repositioning — are applied to the dressing surface, those forces are transmitted through the bonded structure directly to the soft tissue beneath it. The dressing cushions some pressure, but shear forces pass through.

Allevyn Life's five layers are not bonded to each other. They sit in contact but are free to slide independently. When mechanical force is applied to the dressing surface — when a patient is repositioned, when friction from bedding acts across the dressing, when the body moves against a surface — the independent layers slide against each other, absorbing and dissipating that mechanical energy through layer-on-layer friction within the dressing body. Laboratory testing using a novel metric (Frictional Energy Absorber Effectiveness, FEAE) demonstrated that this mechanism absorbs 30–45% of the total mechanical energy from shear forces before it reaches the patient's skin and underlying soft tissue. Professor Amit Gefen of Tel Aviv University, a leading researcher in pressure injury biomechanics, described this as a mechanism that "must contain a shear mitigation mechanism" for an effective prevention dressing — and Allevyn Life is described by Smith+Nephew as one of the only five-layer foam dressings with truly independent, non-bonded layers delivering this effect.

• Non-bonded layers slide independently — absorb 30–45% of mechanical shear energy within the dressing
• Shear forces dissipated in the dressing, not transmitted to soft tissue below
• Pressure redistribution — multilayer construction spreads pressure more evenly than standard foam dressings
• Cushioning — hydrocellular foam and hyper-absorber layers provide padding at bony prominences
• Clinical result — 71% reduction in sacral pressure injury incidence in RCT of elderly hip fracture patients

EXULOCK Technology — Locking Exudate and Bacteria Under Pressure

The third layer in Allevyn Life — the hyper-absorber lock-away core — is the EXULOCK component. It absorbs and locks wound exudate, including viscous exudate, into a retained structure that prevents re-entry to the wound surface under compression. This is the same clinical challenge addressed in the PolyMem and Mepilex Border Flex descriptions — compressed dressings can express absorbed fluid back to the wound surface under body weight and repositioning, reintroducing bacteria and inflammatory mediators to the wound bed. EXULOCK's lock-away mechanism is specifically tested for performance under pressure, and clinical in vitro data demonstrates excellent fluid locking even when the dressing is compressed. The bacteria are locked in with the exudate — reducing the re-exposure of the wound to its own bioburden at each repositioning event.

• Hyper-absorber layer absorbs and locks exudate under pressure
• Handles viscous exudate — not just thin wound fluid
• Bacteria locked in with exudate — reduces re-exposure to wound bioburden under compression
• Prevents leakage onto periwound skin and clothing
• Maintains moist wound environment throughout the wear period

EXUMASK Change Indicator — Masking, Odor, and Knowing When to Change

The fourth layer — the EXUMASK masking layer — serves two distinct functions. The first is cosmetic and psychosocial: when exudate saturates a standard foam dressing, the discoloration is visible through the outer backing as strikethrough — yellow, brown, or blood-tinged staining that is visible through clothing and can cause significant embarrassment and self-consciousness for patients who are living at home, returning to normal activity, or in social settings. EXUMASK's masking technology minimizes the visual visibility of this strikethrough, helping the dressing look cleaner for longer and reducing the negative social impact of wound care on patients' daily lives. This feature reflects Allevyn Life's design philosophy of being built "for people and their everyday life" — a dressing engineering priority that most foam dressings simply don't address.

The second function is clinical: the masking layer incorporates a change indicator. As exudate penetrates into and through the dressing layers, the indicator becomes visible through the outer backing — signaling that the dressing has absorbed substantially and should be changed. Like the DuoDerm Signal's change indicator, this removes guesswork from dressing change timing, preventing premature changes that disrupt healing and delayed changes that allow maceration and leakage.

• EXUMASK masking technology — minimizes visual strikethrough through the outer backing
• Supports patient confidence in daily life — dressing appears cleaner for longer
• Odor absorption — tested against representative wound odor compounds in vitro
• Change indicator — signals when dressing has reached capacity; reduces unnecessary changes and wastage
• Clinical and observational data: 1.66 Allevyn Life dressings per week vs. 3.14 previous dressings in comparative study

Three Shapes — Why Each One Exists

Quadrilobe (66801067–66801070): The standard shape for Allevyn Life and the one that distinguishes it visually from every other bordered foam dressing. Rather than a square or rectangle with corners, the quadrilobe has four rounded lobes separated by concave curves. This geometry was specifically developed through ethnographic research with patients and clinicians to solve a persistent mechanical problem with square bordered foam dressings: the corners. On flat wound sites, square corners present no issue. On rounded or contoured body surfaces — shoulders, trochanters, elbows, or any curved anatomy — the corners of a square dressing cannot lay flat. They tent, lift, and eventually peel, leading to early dressing loss. The quadrilobe's curved margins follow body contours more naturally, distributing adhesive contact more evenly across the entire border perimeter without the stress concentration at corners that causes premature lift.

Y-Heel (66801304): The heel shape uses a Y-configuration — three arms extending from a central pad — specifically engineered to wrap around the posterior heel anatomy. The central pad covers the wound or at-risk pressure site directly over the posterior calcaneus. The three arms extend to wrap around the ankle and Achilles tendon, securing the dressing against the constant mechanical challenge of foot and ankle movement through the full range of motion. Standard square dressings on the heel cannot conform to the three-dimensional posterior heel surface and lift quickly; the Y-configuration achieves circumferential hold without the bulk or immobilization of a compression wrap.

Sacrum with Tail (66801306–66801307): The sacrum shape is designed following direct observational research with patients and clinicians managing sacral wounds. The critical challenge with sacral dressings is the sacral cleft — the gluteal fold that runs between the buttocks and extends toward the coccyx. Standard square, round, or even contoured sacral dressings tent over this cleft, leaving the coccygeal area uncovered or lifting the central portion of the dressing away from the wound surface. Allevyn Life's sacrum shape incorporates a dedicated tail — a narrow extension from the main pad body that extends down to fit into and follow the cleft, ensuring full contact from the sacrum through the cleft without tenting. Available in two sizes to match different sacral wound dimensions and patient anatomy.

The 71% Pressure Injury Reduction — The Clinical Evidence

Allevyn Life is one of the most clinically documented foam dressings for pressure injury prevention in the wound care literature. The landmark evidence comes from a pragmatic randomized controlled trial by Professor Cristiana Forni and colleagues at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna, Italy, published in the International Wound Journal. The study enrolled elderly patients with hip fracture — one of the highest-risk patient populations for pressure injury development — and randomized them to standard preventive care alone or standard care plus Allevyn Life dressing on the sacrum.

The results showed that 15.4% of patients receiving standard care alone developed a sacral pressure injury, compared to 4.5% of patients who received standard care plus Allevyn Life — a statistically significant 71% reduction in pressure injury incidence. The study also showed a reduction in the associated cost of care. This evidence places Allevyn Life as one of the only five-layer foam dressings with randomized controlled trial evidence for isolated dressing effect in pressure injury prevention at the sacrum.

Choosing the Right Size & Shape

• 66801067 — 4" x 4" Quadrilobe: Smaller wounds, Stage II pressure injuries of compact dimension, moderate-size acute wounds, and sites where a smaller dressing footprint fits the anatomy better
• 66801068 — 5⅟₁₆" x 5⅟₁₆" Quadrilobe: Standard mid-range size — appropriate for typical pressure injuries, venous ulcers, and wounds requiring slightly more coverage than the 4x4 provides
• 66801069 — 6⅟₁₆" x 6⅟₁₆" Quadrilobe: Larger wounds and bony prominences where a wider contact area is needed — trochanters, shoulders, elbows, and moderate-to-large pressure injuries
• 66801070 — 8¼" x 8¼" Quadrilobe: Largest quadrilobe — extensive pressure injuries, large chronic wounds, and high-risk patients where maximum coverage at the dressing site provides the most protection and absorbency
• 66801304 — 9" x 9⅛" Y-Heel: The dedicated heel dressing — for all posterior heel pressure injuries and at-risk heel sites; the Y-configuration provides anatomical wrap-around fixation no square dressing can match
• 66801306 — 6¾" x 6⅞" Sacrum: Smaller sacral size — Stage II–III sacral pressure injuries of moderate dimension, prophylactic use on moderate-risk sacral anatomy, and patients with smaller sacral surface
• 66801307 — 8½" x 9" Sacrum: Larger sacral size — Stage III–IV sacral pressure injuries, extensive sacral wounds, and patients with larger sacral anatomy requiring full coverage of the sacral surface through the cleft

Not sure which size or shape fits your wound or patient? Call 1-866-218-0902 — Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm EST

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Questions about Allevyn Life or any of our advanced foam wound dressings? Call 1-866-218-0902 — our team is ready to help.