The invention relates to an absorbent article for application to human or animal skin surfaces in the region of wounds, consisting of an outer covering (2) which is permeable for liquid substances, and of an inner layer (1) which is surrounded by the covering (2) and which consists essentially of a mixture of an amount of strongly osmotically active substances with an amount of osmotically comparatively weak or osmotically inactive substances, such as cellulose. The inner layer (1) is filled with osmotically active substances in such a way that it is possible to exert on a wound, with the wound fluids contained therein, an osmotic pressure via which the wound fluid can be removed from the organism to be treated, and thus it is possible to assist both in the surfaced wound region and in the depth of the tissue a normal interstitial hydration of tissue by directing endogenous fluids in their direction of flow to the patient's skin surface into the absorbent article, and keeping them there.