Soft Convex One-Piece Stoma Bag Review: Dansac VS Hollister.

Dansac Novalife 1 open soft convex midi with viewing option.

Hollister Moderma Flex One-Piece Drainable Soft Convex Ostomy Pouch.

It has been just over 6 months since my ileostomy surgery, and I have tried a LOT of stoma bags from almost all of the UK brands and these two soft convex bags are the ones that I always end up going back to. I have not had a dip around my stoma since surgery, nor do I have a retracted stoma, but my stoma isn’t particularly large, and it doesn’t protrude very far. For these reasons, although I have occasionally used flat baseplates without any convexity, I have found that I generally feel more secure and less worried about leaks when I use a soft convex bag. Today I’ll be reviewing my two favourites in this style from Dansac (pictured to the left) and Hollister (pictured to the right). Don’t worry if you don’t use a convex bag, you may still find this post useful as a lot of the pros and cons apply to other bags and collections from each brand as they all tend to be made in a similar way. So, let’s get on with the review!

First up is the Dansac Novalife 1 open soft convex midi with viewing option.

This is one of the very first bags my stoma nurses gave me in hospital and it has a lot going for it. Here are some of the positive aspects of this bag:

+ The bag has a lovely streamline shape which has no unwanted sharp edges that will dig into your skin. It feels lightweight and features a relatively thin adhesive baseplate, but still feels pretty secure.

+ Likewise, this bag has probably the nicest fabric of all the bags I’ve tried. It is super soft and non-irritating unlike some other brands who use almost canvas-like fabrics or extreme water-repellent materials that are quite hard.

+ Despite the use of fabric however, I’ve found this bag to be relatively easy to dry after showering/ swimming. All it takes is a few squeezes in a towel and a few minutes of air drying and I can get fully dressed without any wet patches seeping into my clothes.

+ The baseplate of the bag is also waterproof as opposed to fabric, meaning that it will not absorb moisture and irritate the skin underneath.

+ This bag is very easy to empty thanks to the very large opening. Some other bags I’ve tried have had pretty small openings or weirdly shaped openings with inconvenient tabs that made emptying the bag difficult or messy, but this Velcro seal is quick and simple.

+ Speaking of tabs, this bag also has a handy little orange tab at the top so that you have a place to start when removing it.

+ The viewing window option is also a great plus for this bag- I personally like to know what’s going on in there, so I can’t stand an entirely opaque bag!

+ I haven’t experienced any odour from this bag, it seems well controlled by the filter.

+ Like almost all convex bags, this one has belt straps for extra security if needed.

+ Finally, this bag, like many others, has a cut-to-fit measurement system and you can safely pre-cut them (i.e. for an on the go emergency kit) without worrying that the adhesive around where you’ve cut will loose its grip- sometimes on thicker baseplates, if you cut the bag to size and leave it unused for too long, the adhesive where you’ve cut will start to peel away from the plastic and lose its stickiness, and nobody wants that!

As for the negatives, there aren’t a whole bunch. But the ones that I have to point out may well unfortunately be bad enough for this bag not to work for some people. After all, it’s about trial and error!

–  The major drawback of this bag, and the reason why I started looking around for others to try, is that the adhesive erodes quite easily around the stoma. Have you ever noticed that the ring of adhesive around your stoma goes white after a while or even starts disintegrating a little? That’s what happens to me pretty much every time I use this bag. It’s nothing serious, its just your output reacting with the thin adhesive and corroding it, the obvious downfall of this being that the bag has a real potential to leak if this process of erosion gets out of control (particularly if you have loose output) or you leave the bag on for too long. For me, once the inner ring started eroding, even when using stoma paste my output started going underneath the rim as opposed to inside the stoma bag. The good news is that I’ve found that using an effective barrier ring can prevent this issue altogether so that I can still reap the benefits of this bag. I also found that by simply adjusting the time of day that I changed my bag (from morning to evening) it was much less likely to leak overnight.

– Another disadvantage of this bag is that the baseplate, being relatively thin and malleable, occasionally creates little ridges/ gaps which can let water in during a shower/ swim. Usually this isn’t a major issue in terms of the bag remaining stuck though, especially when I’m using barrier ring for extra security. To be honest I think it almost wouldn’t matter if most of the outer adhesive came off completely whilst I was using a Clinimed barrier ring, the output probably still wouldn’t get past the ring! They really are THAT good!

– The baseplate on this bag also leaves sticky bits of residue on the skin after removal. Though this can be removed in a few minutes by spraying adhesive remover onto a cotton wipe and wiping the skin in circular motions, it is a little annoying as other bags don’t have this problem.

– Finally, this bag does suffer from what pretty much every bag I’ve tried does: ballooning. No matter what I eat or when I eat, my bag almost always balloons overnight– but this a general critique of most stoma bags, not just this one! I have a clear eating routine now though and by not eating after 9:15pm, I can usually go from 10:30pm to 9am without having to get up and empty/ let the air out of my stoma bag, so it is manageable.

So, there you have my review of this Dansac soft convex drainable pouch. Overall, this bag has a great deal of positives. It also does have one big negative however- being the risk of leakage due to adhesive erosion, but I have managed to solve this problem with the use of a barrier ring. It is still, and probably will remain for some time, one of my go-to bags, especially for shower days!

Now for a worthy opponent, my other favourite soft convex bag: the Hollister Moderma Flex One-Piece Drainable Soft Convex Ostomy Pouch. This bag is the one that I decided to switch to after dealing with leaks from the above Dansac pouch before I discovered Clinimed’s barrier rings and until recently I was using it pretty much every day. I will explain why I’ve had to re-think this again in the negatives section.

+ The biggest advantage of this bag is that it has NEVER leaked! Not once! The adhesive is so strong that I reckon my dog couldn’t rip it off me in a tug of war! Some other bags I’ve tried have leaked and a couple (particularly Salts bags) have come halfway off in the night because of the weight of the output! I definitely feel the most secure and at ease when using this bag; even when my skin is slightly sore, I can rely on this bag to stay firmly put.

+ One of the reasons why the bag never leaks is that the adhesive erosion problem I have with the Dansac bag doesn’t affect this bag at all. There is only the tiniest sign of contact with output once the bag is removed, but the rim around my stoma stays completely intact throughout the wearing period.

+ Despite the fabric baseplate of this bag, it remains equally secure when soaking wet.

+ Because of how secure the bag is, I don’t need to use a barrier ring or any additional products for security, so my routine with this pouch is very quick and simple.

+ Having said in my Dansac bag review that pretty much all bags balloon during the night in my experience, I actually have found this Hollister bag to be slightly more effective at controlling ballooning. It still balloons sometimes, but on occasional mornings (without adapting my diet) I have woken up to a non-ballooned bag, much to my surprise.

+ I also haven’t noticed an issue with odour with this bag, so perhaps the filter is indeed more efficient.

+ Like the Dansac bag, this bag has belt clips for security, but I haven’t needed to use one at all!

+ This bag also features a useful measurement system for easy sizing.

+ It has a viewing window option like the Dansac bag so that you can occasionally check your stoma output throughout the day.

+ It may quite well be my imagination, but I feel like this bag has a slightly larger capacity than the Dansac equivalent…?

+ It also has a much wider baseplate than the Dansac bag which makes it feel even more secure and leak-proof!

+ And there is no sticky residue after bag removal.

As for the negatives, again there aren’t a great deal, but there is one very important one!

– And that is the fabric baseplate. At first it feels comfortable and soft, but the downfall here is that it doesn’t dry well after showering/ swimming. Unlike the Dansac bag and its waterproof baseplate, the Hollister equivalent, though it may not feel damp to the touch or seep massively into clothing, can actually hold a fair bit of moisture. Recently I have been having some issues with my peristomal skin being sore and weepy as a result of this, and I’ve now had to start using powder and barrier spray daily before applying my bag and changing my bag after showering as opposed to before going to bed.

– Of lesser importance but still a negative is that the bag opening is made of quite hard plastic compared to the Dansac bag which means that if you angle the bag straight down, as opposed to at a slightly inward angle, it can scratch your inner thigh– ouch! To avoid this issue, I angle my bag inwards and roll the end up an extra time so that the opening is securely tucked into the fabric and not rubbing against my skin.

– As mentioned above, sometimes when you try and pre-cut a bag and don’t use it soon enough, the adhesive around where you’ve cut begins to lose its stick. This is one of those bags. But it isn’t really a major issue, just make sure that if you’re cutting your own bags, you either leave enough time in the morning/ evening to cut them on the day, or you bring a pair of stoma scissors with you in your emergency kit rather than cutting the bag in advance.

– Finally, you may find that this bag sometimes rustles a little bit more under clothing, but I mainly wear tight jeans or skirts, so they keep it from moving about too much!

And that’s it! If I absolutely had to pick one bag to use solely, I think it would have to be the Hollister bag because security and preventing leaks is the most important thing for me. I am hoping that my current regimen with the stoma powder will heal my skin so that I can either stick completely with the Hollister bag but change it after showering to avoid moisture retention (as this is really the only thing that’s majorly bothering me), or alternate between the Hollister and the Dansac bags depending on whether I need the Dansac waterproof baseplate for showering or not. But overall, I don’t think there is such a thing as a “perfect” stoma bag. Everyone is different and their stoma, peristomal skin and varying output may require changes in equipment or routine at any time; it’s all about adapting to what your body needs. But if you’re having doubts about your current routine or appliance, or if you just want to try something new, I would definitely recommend giving these bags a try!