SMITH & NEPHEW PRESS RELEASE

Launch extends range of treatment options and empowers wound care professionals to use their clinical judgment to choose what is best for the patient, the wound and the care setting.

St. Petersburg, FL. – December 2008 – The Advanced Wound Management Division of Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN; NYSE:SNN) is pleased to announce the introduction of a foam dressing kit for Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT). The new dressing kits will be launched in the market in the first quarter of 2009. The launch of the Smith & Nephew foam kit represents the first time wound care professionals will have the freedom to select either a gauze or foam wound interface from a single NPWT device manufacturer.

“Depending on the individual needs of the patient, the wound, and the care setting, health care professionals can now exercise their judgment to use either gauze or foam” says Joe Woody, President of Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Wound Management Division. “We recognize that wound care should be in the hands of the clinicians and we want to supply them with the best options to select the right dressing for each patient.”

The new Smith & Nephew foam kits will be supplied sterile and are available in four sizes. It is a single-use product designed to be clinically effective while intuitive to learn and easy to use.

“As the largest worldwide supplier of dressings, Smith & Nephew’s core competency has historically focused around wound dressings,” says Robin Carlstein, Senior Vice President of Advanced Wound Devices at Smith & Nephew. “As a leader in advanced wound care interfaces, it only makes sense Smith & Nephew would introduce a foam dressing kit.”