US2875758A - Fingertip bandage - Google Patents

Description

March 3, 1959 G. T. FUZAK ETAL 2,375,758

FINGERTIP BANDAGE Filed May 29, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 650965 .H/ZA/G, flaw/422:: 01.55,

INVENTORS.

awwg

March 3, 1959 FUZAK ETAL 2,875,758

FINGERTIP BANDAGE Filed May 29, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Games ,fiuzAK.

352N419!) cl'BoLss IN VENTORS ATTORNEY ilnited States Patent FINGERTIP BANDAGE George T; Fuzak and Bernard J. Boles, Buffalo, N. Y. Application May 29, 1957, Serial No. 662,461 "Claimst (Cl. 128-457) This. invention relates. to first aid. bandages of the type injured area with gauzeand. subsequently wrapping ad-v hesive tape in variousfdirections, about the gauze. The resultant bandage isunavoidably cumbersome and bulky, thus incapacitating the bandaged extremity; While this is inconvenient; and uncomfortable, it is especially so if the. injured person is required, by the nature of his duties, to. use his hands. and fingers in performing the work in which he isengaged. Impairment of function can in this event be out of proportion to a relatively. minor injury.

The common bandaging method is, furthermore, time consuming and so difiicult and, awkward as to prevent the injured person from. bandaging his own finger, often necessitating the aid of a skilled nurse. -In addition, the nature of the resulting bandage is such that it offerslittle if any protection from water and: various other liquids, such. as, oils andksolvents, which retard the healing process.

Pre-cut bandages which are presently, known to the art suffer from substantially the same defects asthose set forth above. Such bandages do not possess the, combination of ability to excludeforeignsubstances, conformability to the fingertip, rapidity and ease of self application and long retentivity upon, the finger; all of which are inherent in the basic, concept. of first aid.

It is therefore, an object, of our invention to provide a fingertip dressing which obviates the deficiencies of bandages now known to. the, art for dressing a fingertip. injury.

Amongst the further objects, ofthis invention are: to manufacture a fingertip. bandage which can be applied rapidly and easily by the person injured; to provide a bandage which, by virtue of its conformability to the finger, can be worn with essentially no discomfort or impairment of use. of the injured extremity and which will remain, adhered to the fingerover a long period of time under adverse conditions, and to construct a fingertip bandage which is. substantially impervious to water, oils and other common liquids and which insures complete protection against introduction of extraneous matter and promotes rapid. healing.

These as well as other objects of our invention will be apparent to those; skilled in, the artfrom the following disclosure as related to the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a plan View of the basic form of our invention, showing one of the two facing or backing strips pa y emo d;

Figures 2 through 6 are plan views of alternative embodiments of our'inventi on with the backing strips completely removed, Figure 2 illustrating the preferred modification;

Figure 7 is a plan view of the preferred form of our invention showing a finger on the bandage in position, for. bandaging; and

Figures 8 through 11 are perspective views of our-band+ age illustrating the manner of application to a fingertip With respect to the general details of our bandage, each of. its. various forms is constructed of a sheet of adhesive, coated fabric or film 1 which may be approximately. square, or, as brought out hereinafter, may be rectangular or oval-shaped if desired. A pair of opposed edges may be arbitrarily designated side edges and the remaining pair of edges end edges. The central portion of the sheet extending between the end. edges may receive a pro-Q tective covering 2; however, for certain uses the covering or pad 2 maybe omitted.

Secured to the adhesive sheet are facing strips 3 and 4 which overlap the laterally positioned covering 2 and maintain its cleanliness until use. Although theadhesive, sheet may be of any appropriate material, such as adhe; sive coated cloth or thin flexible paper, it is preferred to utilize a pliable, pressure sensitive adhesive plastic, or other moisture and oil resistant material. The protective covering is generally made of gauze or other absorbent material, while the facing strips are crinoline or, preferably, coated paper or other smooth, inert material, such as a pliable plastic, which sticks to the adhesive without stripping it from the adhesive sheet upon removal. The facing strips 3 and 4 may be removed easily, simply by stripping them from the bandage as shown in Figure 1.

Referring specifically to the fundamental inventive details of our invention as illustrated in Figure 1, pairs of slits; or inwardly converging notches 5, 6 and 7, 8. extend through the adhesive sheet transversely towards and terminate substantially at the sides 9 and 10 of the protective covering, thus dividing the adhesive areas on each side of the covering into three individual segments, wings 11, 12 and 13, 14 and side seal tabs, 15, 16. Notches 5 and 6. are respectively in substantial alignment with notches 7 and; 8 and, both pairs of notches are so located as to define side seal tabs 15 and 16 to, be rectangular in shape and of a width about equal to or less than the width of the side of a finger. While We. prefer to construct our bandage so that these tabs are approximately /8, of an inch in width and have found that a bandage having tabs of this width performs its function more satisfactorily than do bandages having tabs of widths varying from this, it will be apparout that a bandage having tabs varying in width to as little as about A of an inch or to as much as about A of an inch may still be commercially satisfactory.

Each inwardly converging notch is of such configuration as to provide for contiguity of the tab and wing segment at a point adjacent to the protective covering and to provide for a spaced relationship of the tab and wing at the sides of the bandage. It will be immediately apparent from a consideration of Figures 2 through 6 that the foregoing spatial relationship of the intermediate tabs to the Wing segments is maintained in the remaining embodiments of our invention even though the tabs and wing segments of these forms take different shapes, We have discovered that this concept is of utmost importance to performance of the inventive function of our bandage. Upon removal of facing strips 3 and 4, not only do the individual adhesive surfaces become exposed, but, in addition, the desired pliability and softness characteristics of the bandage material become apparent. We have found that unless the spatial relationship described above is maintained the individual segments tend to adhere to one another during removal of the facing strips. The same difficulty occurs during application of the bandage to the finger. The result is an annoying, time consuming attempt to separate these segments, or a wasteful discarding of the bandage. Utilization of the concept disclosed obviates these difficulties and insures rapid and simple application of the bandage to the fingertip. Additional advantages will be apparent upon consideration of our novel method for bandaging a fingertip.

The Wings, 11, 12, 13 and 14, occupy corner or opposite portions of the bandage. They are externally located and separated by the centrally positioned side seal tabs 15 and 16 and protective covering 2. Each of Wings 11 through 14 has an edge, such as indicated by 17, tapering outwardly from its adjacent tab and each is in the form or shape of a right trapezoid. Pairs of wings, 11, 12 and 13, 14 are respectively adjacent to tabs 15 and 16 and located externally thereof. The acute angle described by the tapering edge 17 and side seal tab edge 18 is provided to decrease the amount of overlap of adhesive at the cortiers of the tip of the bandage and to greatly increase the ease of application as discussed above. When the wings 11 through 14 are formed in the manner indicated in Figure lthey are of such size and shape as to adhere to the sides of the finger only to the extent necessary to completely attach the protective covering to the finger and in such a manner as to permit sealing of the side tabs in conformance with the contour of the finger. The angle described by the tapering edge 17 and the edge of the protective covering, or, in other words,-the acute angle of the right-trapezoidal wing, indicated by the designation a, mayva'ry to as little as 10 degrees, thus altering the wing shape to a right triangle, and still provide for adequate adhesion of the bandage to the finger. It is however most preferable that the angle be between 15 degrees and 75 degrees to insure the greatest degree of adhesion and sealing and the minimum bulkiness. It should also be noted that the bandage may be shortened by trimming oif opposite end portions thus making the wings right-triangular in shape, without rendering our bandage inefiective in performing its inventive function.

The wing plus protective covering width, the dimension indicated. by the designation W in Figure 1, is less than the circumference of the finger. If this dimension is greater than that specified, the adhesive sheet will be fastened beneath the protective covering and defeat the purpose of the covering.

The length of the bandage as such, the dimension between the end edges, indicated by the designation L in Figure 1, is not limited except by the length of the finger. However, we have found that this length should be at least sufficient to form a fingertip covering mid-section, indicated by the reference b, and opposed finger side covering end-sections, indicated by the reference c, so that the central portion of the bandage, d, may extend from the base of the cuticle along one side of the finger, across the fingertip and back along the opposite side of the finger to a point oppositely disposed from the base of the cuticle. In folding the bandage, the two pairs of wings are disposed along any two opposing sides of the finger so as to be wrapped therearound in overlapping relation with each other and with the finger side covering end-sections, and the tabs at the sides of the mid-section may be folded along opposite sides of the finger.

Minimum length L is dependent upon the size of the individual finger, but is generally approximately 1% inches to 1 /2 inches for an adult. It will be evident that for a child this dimension could be as little as of an inch. We prefer, however, to make our bandage a total length of approximately 2 inches, since we have found that this size bandage has most widespread utility in industrial and commercial application. A bandage of this length covers the entire fingertip area to approximately the first joint and thus dresses those injuries which have heretofore been so difiicult to protect.

, The central portion of the bandage and protective covering 2 should be of a width approximately equal to the diameter of the finger so as to cover any injured side thereof and afford complete protection to the injury. It

is preferred to have this dimension about /4 of an inch. Although various preferred dimensions have been stated, it should be at once apparent that such dimensions refer to a bandage intended primarily for use by average adults. Our invention should not be considered to be so limited, since application of the concepts disclosed to a childs fingertip bandage will result in completely satisfactory performance of the bandaging function. The preferred dimensions will, in such event, all be correspondingly decreased to conform to the decreased circumference, length, width and depth of an average childs finger. Because of difierence between the finger size of the average male, female and child, we prefer a bandage 2% inches long by 2% inches wide, with a protective dressing width of /1 of an inch for men; a bandage 2 inches long by 2 inches wide, having a protective dressing width of of an inch for ladies, and a bandage 1% inches long by 1% inches wide, with a protective dressing width of of an inch for children.

Although the configuration shown in Figure 1 illustrates the fundamental inventive concept discovered by us, and.

results in dressing an injured fingertip in a greatly improved manner, further inventive details are disclosed in the plan views of Figures 2 through 6. Referring specifically to Figure 2, which illustrates our preferred embodiment, this bandage has side seal tabs 19 and 20 which are of a length less than the width of the wings 21 through 24. It is preferred that these tabs be approximately one half the width of the wings. This shortening of the side tabs further decreases any tendency of the individual adhesive segments to adhere during removal of the facing strips and securement of the bandage to the fingertip, without affecting their primary bandage sealing and bandage conforming functions. Furthermore, the tabs 19 and 20, because of their length-width relationship, have a substantially increased rigidity or firmness and ability to protrude transversely of the end of the finger during adherence of the wings 21 through 24 to the finger, as shown in Figures 8, 9 and 10, thus resulting in a noticeably improved ease and rapidity of application of the bandage.

Wing segments 21 through 24 are trapezoidal in shape although it will be readily apparent that sides 25 through 28 need not necessarily be parallel to the sides 29 and 30 of the protective covering 31 or to each other so long as these wings have suflicient surface area to adhere effectively to the finger. The end edges 32 through 35 are tapered outwardly from the covering and towards the sides 25 through 28 of the wings at an angle of approximately 10. The advantages inhering in this modification are particularly apparent in the bandaging of a digit such as the thumb which normally has a more pronounced angle at the juncture of the nail and finger or the base of the cuticle than is the case with the other fingers- Tapering the end edges, as illustrated, makes it possible to more nearly, align these edges upon adherence of the wing segments to the finger thus resulting in a substantially neater appearing bandage which has increased retentivity characteristics.

A further improvement in our preferred form of bandage resides in decreasing the length of the protective covering 31 so that it is less than the length of the adhesive sheet while being greater than the width of tabs 19 and 20. This provides for an area adjoining each end of the protective covering which is adhered to the finger upon application of the bandage. The result is greater ease of application and increased assurance of complete sealing of the bandage. In addition, the pad of this form is oflF-center from a center line with respect to tabs 19 and 20 so that upon application to an injury, as indicated in Figures 7-11, no more pad will be provided than is necessary to fully cover the injury.

The modification of our bandage shown in Figure 3 is similar to that illustrated in Figure 1 except that notches 36 through 39 define side seal tabs 40 and 41 to have edges 42 through 45 tapering outwardly from the sides of i the protective covering, while Wings 46 through 49 have their edges, 50 through 53, which are mosh nearlyin adjacency with the tabs, normal to the sides 54 and 55 of the protective covering 56; Tabs 40 and41 are thus trapezoidal or may be triangular. in shape while wings 46 through 49 are generally rectangular in form. This form ofour bandage has improved retentively and sealing characteristics since upon. application of its wing segments to the finger the edges-50 through 53 aremore nearly parallelto the sideszof the fingertip covering mid-section and a smaller area of finger remains to be coveredby the tabs than is the case with our preferred form. However this form of bandage has aslightly greater tendency towards adherence of the tabs and wings prior to application and does-not conform to the fingertip as perfectly as does our preferred bandage.

Our invention is further exemplified by the bandage of Figure 4, which isa variation of the embodiment of Figure-3Msince the tab edges-of this form are also nonparallel. In this bandage neither the edges 57 through 60 of wings 61 through 64 nor the edges 65 through 68 of side seal tabs 69 and 70 are parallel. Although tabs 69 and 70 have a greater surface area than do the tabs of any of the other forms of our invention, and therefore tend to adhere to a greater area of the finger, thereis no significant increase in sealing ability, conformability or period of retention since the tabs of any of the forms shown provide more than sufiicient adherence. Figure 4- is simply further illustrative of the many variations which may-be made in our basic form of bandage.

Another embodiment, shown in Figure 5, has an injury protective covering 71 Whichdoes not extend from end to end of the adhesive sheet 1, but'extends only from a position of close adjacency with one of the ends 72* of the adhesive to, and terminates in, a protective covering edge 73 which lies substantially on the line of extension of the edges 74-and 75, least adjacent to band The effect of" deletion of the injury protective material from a substantially portion of the bandage asshown is to decrease further any bulkiness due to presence of such material as is unnecessary to protect an injury which extends from the top or bottom or one side of a finger but does not extend beyond the fingertip. A subsidiary effect is to join wings 78 and 79 into a-single adhesive area, but thishas-no. effect upon the fundamental concept of the requirements" essential to the formation of a superior fingertip bandage.

Figure 6, which illustrates another form of our bandage, is further exemplary of the modifications which may be made in our invention without departing from its fundamental concepts. In this form, wings 80 through 83 are substantially similar to the wing segments of Figure 1. They differ in that notches 84 through 87 do not terrninate at the edges'88 and 89 of pad 90, but at points 91 through94 spaced from those edges a distance of approximately one third the width of the wings. Straight slits or cuts 95 through 98 extend from points 91- through 94 respectively substantially to pad edges 88 and 89in order to make the Wings individual segments and thus make it possible to adhere them to the finger along their full length. Side seal tabs 99 and 100, defined by these notches and slits, extend transversely from pad edges 88 and 89 beyond the points 91 through 94 and are of a length equal to or less than the width of thewings. As is true of the form shown in Figure 3, the wing edges defined by slits 95 through 98 are more nearly parallel to the edges of the pad midsection upon application of the bandage to the finger, than is the case with the other forms of our bandage. The resulting dressing has improved sealing ability and longer retentivity upon the finger, but does not have quite the ease of application possessed by our preferred bandage.

The bandage is applied to an injured finger in the manner illustrated in Figures 7 through 11. Figure 7 shows our bandage with the palrn' or: bottom of: the finger placedv upon'the protective covering 31 preparatory of thebandagedfinger at that point is as shown in Figure 10. Side seal tabs 19 and 20 are then pulled back and adhered to the: sides of the finger, covering the previously unsealed corner portions 101 and. 102.

It will be noted from Figures 10 and 11 that prior to adherence oftabs 19 and 20m the sidesof the finger, the bandage conforms to the contour ofthe top-and bottom sides of the fingertip, but does" not conform to the sides of the fingertip. Pullingdown these tabs and adhering them to the sides of the finger results in total conformance of the bandage to the fingertip, thus making not only for an extremely neat appearing bandage but alsofor a bandage which does not handicap the injured extremity. Furthermore, conformance of the bandage to the finger assures greater safety to the injured person since there are v no loose ends or portions to catch on machines or appliances.

The foregoing method, in substance, involves adherence of a protective covering or pad to the fingertip with two pairs of wings and a pair of tabs, one pair of wings cooperating with each end-section and the side seal tabs-cooperating with the mid-section.

More specifically, a method of applying the bandage for protection of an injury located on any portion of the fingertip is as follows, reference being directed particularly to Figures 7 through 11:

An end-section is placed endwise of the finger to cover the injured side, corresponding adhesive wings are wrapped about the finger, the mid-section is folded over the tip of the finger, the remaining end-section is folded over the side of the finger opposite from the first endsection, the second pair of wings arewrapped about the finger over the first set of wings and first. end-section, and then the tabs are pulled down and adhered longitudinally against the sides of the finger.

As evident from Figure 11 the resulting bandage is extremely neat in appearance, having no extraneous or nonessential adhesive or protective covering areas. The presence of side seal tabs 19 and 20 insures complete sealing of the bandage about the injury and conformance of the bandage to the shape of the finger. It will be noted that there are no out edge corner portions, such as the ones indicated by 101 and 102, left uncovered after the seal tabs have been applied. The injury is thus completely sealed against the entry of any foreign matter. Even if the injured area is immersed in water or other liquid it Willbe protected by our bandage.

Wehave found that our bandage has an important use in addition to its primary function as a dressing for the protection of an already injured fingertip area. Many industrial tasks require employees to continuously handle sharp objects or abrasive materials. Unless the fingers utilized are protected, injury or damage is likely to occur. Our dressing, with or without the protective covering, provides excellent protection against this eventuality while permitting rapid and easy application and removal, and a high degree of unimpaired function of the finger.

In the event that the protective covering is not utilized, respective pairs of aligned notches extend transversely from the sides of the dressing to and terminate at points spaced from each other a distance substantially equal to the width of the finger.

It will be evident that each of the foregoing embodiments of our invention possesses, because of the presence Wing his then wrapped about the other side and the bottom of the finger so that the appearance of' side seal tabs intermediate'the external wing segments and because of the spatial relationship of these elements at the sides of the bandage and their contiguity substantially at the sides of the protective covering, the ability to be conformed to the fingertip and to completely seal the bandaged area against entry of external infectants. Furthermore, it is inherent in our bandage that there is no unnecessary overlapping of adhesive areas irrespective of which embodiment of our bandage is considered. The result is an extremely thin, light weight, pliable dressing which is capable of adhering to the finger for extended periods and which permits full movement and unimpaired function of the finger. In addition, the simplicity of the bandage as well as the relationship of the tabs and wing segments permits the person whose finger has been injured to apply it to the injury quickly and easily without assistance.

Furthermore, as is well known, standard first aid band type dressings are frequently used, either singly or in concert'with each other, to bandage a fingertip injury in order to avoid the cumbersome procedure of protecting the injury by the individual application of gauze and adhesive tape. Our bandage provides a greater area of protective covering to absorb secretions of blood or other substances from the injury without increasing the protective covering immediately over the injury itself. Thus, by providing this greater absorbent area without unnecessarily encumbering the digit, our bandage has the added advantage of diminishing the possibility of the collection and coagulation, immediately adjacent to the injury, of hardened masses of these secretions which have the efiect of retarding the healing processes, and the consequent advantage of decreasing the necessity for replacement of the dressing.

While we have disclosed our invention with reference to a fingertip for simplicity of discussion, our bandage is perfectly suited for the dressing of injuries to other digits. Therefore, when reference is made to finger or fingertip hereinabove, or in the claims, it is to be understood that this designation is inclusive of the other digits of the body.

In addition to the advantages and attributes already discussed, we have found that our bandage has a special efficacy when applied to digits on the lower extremities. Because of the close natural adjacency of these digits and because they must normally be confined within a limited area, it is essential for comfort, and to avoid irritations and injury to adjacent digits, to bandage the injury with a thin dressing which conforms closely to the contours of the injured digit. Our bandage, because of the concepts disclosed, is especially suitable for use in bandaging injuries to these digits.

Furthermore, the foregoing embodiments of our invention willsuggest modifications of the form of the wings and tabs and combinations of various individual details of such embodiments. For example, the tabs 40 and 41 could Well be utilized in the bandage of Figure 2 or any of the forms illustrated could be modified by smoothing out the corners so that the wings, tabs and protective covering are curvilinear in form. In addition,

\ it has been customary with some manufacturers of conventional bandages to perforate the adhesive sheet in an area adjacent to the bandage compress or protective pad even though the desirability of doing so has not been specifically substantiated. Although We do not prefer to utilize an adhesive sheet which has been so perforated, thus permitting absorption by the protective covering of liquids with which the bandaged finger comes in contact, we do embrace within the meaning of adhesive sheet and adhesive strip as set forth in the claims, a sheet or strip of material which is provided with an adhesive surface, whether it has or has not been perforated. So long as such changes do not alter the presence of side seal tabs and exteriorly adjacent wings, as well as the spatial relationship of these elements, it is clear that they will be apparent to those skilled in the art and within the scope of our invention.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our application, Serial Number 439,322, filed June 25, 1954, and now abandoned.

Having fully described our invention we claim:

1. A fingertip dressing comprising an adhesive sheet having two pairs of inwardly converging notches directed transversely from the sides of said sheet, each pair of said notches being in alignment with the other pair of said notches and each notch terminating at a point spaced from the notch with which it is in alignment a distance substantially equal to the width of a finger, each pair of said notches further defining two wing segments and a tab segment intermediately adjacent said wing segments.

2. A fingertip bandage, comprising an adhesive sheet upon which is centrally adhered a protective covering dividing the adhesive sheet into two side segments, each side segment having a pair of inwardly converging notches extending transversely from a side of said adhesive sheet substantially to a side of said protective covering and defining two externally located wing segments separated by a'centrally located tab segment.

3. A fingertip bandage, comprising a protective covering and adhesive strips extending outwardly from the covering on two sides of the covering and'adhered thereto, said adhesive strips each having a pair of inwardly converging notches extending transversely from a side of said adhesive strip substantially to a side of said protective covering and defining two external wing segments separated by a side seal tab segment adjacent to each of said wing segments.

4. A fingertip bandage comprising a rectangular protective covering in combination with two external trapezoidal adhesive sheet portions separated by a rectangular adhesive sheet tab portion intermediately adjacent to each of said trapezoidal adhesive sheet portions extending transversely from each longitudinal side of said covering and adhered thereto, said bandage being of a length in a direction parallel to the longest side of said covering suflicient to cover, on opposite sides of the finger, a fingertip to the base of the cuticle of the finger, each of said trapezoidal adhesive segments being of the same width in a direction perpendicular to said longest side of said covering, the combined width of one of said segments and said protective covering being less than the circumference of said finger, and said adhesive sheet tab portion being of a width less than the width of the side of said finger.

5. A fingertip bandage comprising a rectangular protective covering in combination with and centrally at tached to an adhesive sheet which is separated by the covering into two distinct side adhesive areas each of which in turn consists of a pair of wing portions and a side seal tab defined by a pair of slits, said slits being triangular in shape and extending from the side of the bandage to the side of the protective covering, each pair of slits being aligned with the other pair of slits, said wing portions being right-trapezoids and having their acute angles adjacent said tab.

6. A fingertip bandage comprising an adhesive sheet and a protective covering, said covering being adhered to the adhesive sheet and dividing the adhesive sheet laterally into two identical side portions, each portion consisting of two wings and a tab defined by a pair of slits which are each right triangular in shape so that said wings transversely from a side of said adhesive sheet substantially to a side of said protective covering and defining a tab segment and two wing segments, said tab segment being intermediately adjacent to each of said wing segments and being of a length less than the width of said wing segments in a direction transverse to said covering, and said wing segments having edges, least adjacent to said tab segment, tapered outwardly from said covering.

8. A fingertip bandage comprising a substantially rectangular protective covering in combination with and adhered to an adhesive sheet, the length of said covering being less than the length of said sheet whereby a first adhesive area adjoins one end of said covering and a second smaller adhesive area adjoins the opposite end of said covering, said adhesive sheet having a pair of inwardly converging notches extending from each side of said sheet transversely towards and terminating substantially at the longitudinal sides of said covering and defining two Wing segments and a tab segment intermediately adjacent to each of said wing segments on each side of said covering, said tab segments being of a length less than the width of said Wing segments in a direction transversely of said covering, the end edges of said wing segments each being tapered outwardly from said covering, said adhesive sheet being of a length sufficient to cover, on opposite sides of a finger, the fingertip to the base of the cuticle, the width of said wing segments being substantially the same and the combined width of said protective covering and one of said wing segments being less than the circumference of said finger.

9. A fingertip bandage comprising a protective covering in combination with and centrally adhered to an adhesive sheet, said adhesive sheet having a pair of notches extending transversely inwardly towards and terminating substantially at opposite sides of said covering and defining on each side of said covering two wing segments and a tab segment said tab segment having side edges tapering outwardly from said covering and being intermediately adjacent said wing segments.

10. A fingertip bandage comprising a rectangular protective covering in combination with and adhered to an adhesive strip, said strip having two pairs of inwardly converging notches, each pair of notches extending inwardly from and transversely of opposite sides of said strip and defining a pair of separate aligned tabs extending transversely of said covering at one end thereof, a pair of separate aligned wing segments, each of said segments being adjacent to a longitudinal side of said covering and adjacent to a first side of each of said tabs and an end segment separated from but adjacent to a second side of each of said tabs and adjacent to said end of said covering.

11. A fingertip dressing, comprising: a sheet of adhesive material having a central portion approximating the width of a human finger and of suflicient length to form, when folded over the tip of the finger, a fingertip covering mid-section and finger side covering end-sections at opposite sides of the finger, said side covering endsections extending to points on opposite sides of the finger coextensive with the base of the cuticle; a first pair of side wings extending laterally from one of said finger side covering end-sections; a second pair of side wings extending laterally from the other of said finger side covering end-sections; said side wings being substantially coextensive with said side covering end-sections and adapted to wrap in overlapping relation about the finger; and a pair of tabs extending laterally from the fingertip covering mid-section of said central portion and foldable longitudinally of the finger at opposite sides thereof, the confronting edges of said tabs and wings relatively diverging, thereby to avoid interference between said tabs and wings as said dressing is applied to the finger.

12. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 11, wherein: said wings are of relatively greater length than said tabs.

13. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 11, wherein: said tabs have parallel edges and the confronting edges diverge therefrom.

14. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 11, wherein: said tabs have non-parallel sides.

15. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 11, wherein: said wings are trapezoidal in shape. I,

16. A fingertip dressing, comprising: an adhesive sheet having opposed side edges and end edges, and also having a pair of notches converging inwardly from each side edge of said sheet; said notches defining with the end edges of said sheet opposed pairs of wings, and each pair of notches defining therebetween a pair of tabs; said sheet forming between said wings and tabs a central portion approximating the width of a human finger and the length of said sheet between said end edges being sufiicient, when folded, to cover the tip of the finger and extend along opposite sides of the finger to the base of the cuticle; said wings positioned, on folding of said central portion over the end of a finger, at the sides of the finger and adapted to wrap therearound and over said central portion; said tabs positioned, on folding of said central portion over the end of a finger, at the sides of the tip of the finger and thereby foldable longitudinally of the finger.

17. A fingertip dressing, comprising: a sheet of adhesive material having a central portion approximating the width of the human finger to form a fingertip covering mid-section and finger side covering end-sections, said end-sections being of suflicient length to extend to points on opposite sides of the finger coextensive with the base of the cuticle and cover opposite sides of the finger; a pad occupying at least a part of said central portion; a pair of wings extending laterally from each of said end-sections; a pair of tabs extending laterally from said midsection; the extremities of said tabs and wings being spaced from each other, whereby on folding of said central portion over the finger said tabs and. wings tend to remain separated from each other; said wings positioned, when said central portion is folded over the finger, to be wrapped about the finger and the end-sections of said central portion; said tabs positioned, when said central portion is folded over the finger, to be disposed longitudinally of the finger; said tabs and Wings being immediately contiguous to each other at their root ends connected to said central portion, whereby on folding of said central portion, wrapping of said wings, and longitudinally disposing said tabs, the fingertip is completely enclosed.

18. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 17, wherein: said pad covers said mid-section and one only of said end-sections.

19. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 17, wherein: said pad is coextensive with said central portion.

20. A fingertip dressing as set forth in claim 17, wherein: said pad terminates short of the extremities of said end-sections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,253,108 Casey Aug. 19, 1941 2,440,235 Solomon Apr. 20, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS 734,888 Germany Apr. 30, 1943 704,214 Great Britain Feb. 17, 1954

Images