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Scientists developed a smart bandage that can actively monitor chronic wounds and provide appropriate drug treatments to improve the chances of recovery. The research, published in the journal Small, aims to turn the bandage of a traditionally pbadive treatment into a more active paradigm for meeting a persistent and challenging medical challenge.
Chronic skin wounds from burns, diabetes, and other medical problems can overwhelm the regenerative capabilities of the skin and often lead to persistent infections and amputations. Researchers at Tufts University in the United States have designed dressings with heating elements and heat-resistant drug transporters that can provide tailored treatments in response to built-in pH and temperature probes that track the infection and inflammation.
Non-healing chronic wounds are an important medical problem. Patients are often older and limited in their ability to take care of themselves, but non-healing wounds are usually treated on an outpatient or at home basis. Smart bandages could provide real-time monitoring and delivery of treatment with limited intervention from the patient or caregivers. "We have been able to adopt a new approach to bandages because of the emergence of flexible electronics," said Sameer Sonkusale, a professor at Tufts University in the United States.
"In fact, flexible electronics has made it possible, but the dressings have changed little since the early days of medicine. We are simply applying modern technology to an ancient art in the hope of". improve the results for an intractable problem, "said Sonkusale. The pH of a chronic wound is one of the key parameters for tracking its progress. Normal healing wounds range from 5.5 to 6.5, while non-healing wound can have a pH well above 6.5.
Temperature is also an important parameter, providing information on the level of inflammation in and around the wound. While the smart bandages in this study combine pH and temperature sensors, researchers have also developed flexible sensors for oxygenation – another marker of healing – that can be incorporated into the bandage. The inflammation could also be followed not only by heat but also by specific biomarkers.
A microprocessor reads the data from the sensors and can release a drug at the request of its carriers by heating the gel. The entire construct is attached to a clear medical tape to form a flexible bandage less than 3 mm thick. The components have been selected to keep the bandage low cost and disposable, with the exception of the microprocessor, which can be reused. "The smart bandage we've created, with pH and temperature sensors and antibiotic drug delivery, is really a prototype for a wide range of possibilities," said Sonkusale.
"One can imagine integrating other detection components, drugs and growth factors that treat different conditions in response to different scarring markers," he said.
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