E-Bandages To Aid Effective & Faster Wound Healing
The self-healing capability of skin varies with the individual. In some, the process is very swift but in some cases wound healing takes a longer duration leaving the individual prone to chronic pain and severe infection. In the latest research by a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin self-powered bandages have been developed that aids in reducing healing time for skin wounds by triggering an electric filed over the injury area. Detailed research findings were published in ACS Nano.
Venous ulcers, non-healing surgical wounds & diabetic foot ulcers are few Chronic skins
Credit: ACS Nano
wounds. Various methods like growth-factor therapy, oxygen exposure, bandaging etc have been used by doctors
to treat chronic wound healing but the results show limited effectiveness in maximum cases.In the early 1960s, the importance of electrical stimulation for skin healing was discovered. For applying this principle massive instruments were required which needed patient hospitalization. To curb this long procedure and to come up with a more promising accessible solution this self-powered e- bandages were developed that could convert skin movements into a therapeutic electric field.
A wearable nanogenerator was created with overlapping sheets of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), copper foil and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to power the E-bandages. The power source converted skin movements, which occur during normal activity or even breathing, into small electrical pulses. The experiment was conducted on rats wherein this current flowed to two working electrodes that were placed on either side of the skin wound in rats to produce a weak electric field. Wounds covered by e-bandages healed within 3 days, compared with 12 days for a control bandage with no electric field. The faster wound healing was due to enhanced fibroblast migration, proliferation, and differentiation induced by the electric field. This revolutionizes the future of personalized healthcare.