Medicine Atlas

How Healing Is Practiced
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Treatment

Band-Aid

Surgical Procedure

Band-Aid is a brand of adhesive bandage used for minor wound care, consisting of a strip of gauze centered on surgical tape so it can be applied without assistance. It was invented in 1920 by Johnson and Johnson employee Earle Dickson in Highland Park, New Jersey, originally to treat his wife's frequent small kitchen injuries; early handmade versions sold poorly until free samples distributed to the Boy Scouts of America boosted demand. Johnson and Johnson introduced machine made Band-Aids in 1924 and sterilized versions in 1939, and distributed millions during the Second World War; the company estimates more than 100 billion have been sold worldwide. The brand is now distributed by Kenvue, the consumer health company spun off from Johnson and Johnson in 2023, and the name has become a genericized trademark for adhesive bandages generally in the United States, Canada, and other countries.

Facts
Classification
Status
Standard of Care 1
Origin Year
1920 2
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-Aid, lead section
Quote, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band-Aid, lead section
Band-Aid is a brand of adhesive bandages distributed by the consumer health company Kenvue, spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023.
View the Source
2. Band-Aid (Wikipedia)
Article text
Quote, Article text
The Band-Aid was invented in 1920 by a Johnson & Johnson employee, Earle Dickson, in Highland Park, New Jersey, for his wife Josephine, who frequently injured, cut and burned herself while cooking.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.