The most effective non-stick dressing for er use is petrolatum gauze: a 4X4 coated with vaseline. Bacitracin antibiotic ointment is mostly vaseline, and works well. The downsides: air doesn'tpenetrate vaseline, so the underlying skin becomes...well...prune-like. When you change the dressing, you gotta clean off all the old ointment and put on new, cuz old ointment stops doing its antibiotic thing and you create a warm, moist dark haven for bacteria. Cleaning the wound is the most important part, drinking water works fine. ER docs no longer clean wounds with peroxide, alcohol, tincture of iodine-these kill bacteria just fine, but also kill the healthy skin cells at the margin of the wound. I the wound is really contaminated, some of the docs use a betadine/povidone iodine and tap water mix for irrigating it.