Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Texas at Austin have presented a proof-of-concept for a wearable sensor that can track healing in sores, ulcers and other kinds of chronic skin wounds, even without the need to remove the bandages.
Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Texas at Austin have presented a proof-of-concept for a wearable sensor that can track healing in sores, ulcers and other kinds of chronic skin wounds, even without the need to remove the bandages. The paper was published in the journal ACS Sensors.
Chronic wounds that fail to heal quickly, such as diabetic foot ulcers or pressure ulcers, can be very tricky to manage for healthcare professionals and a nightmare for patients. To monitor the healing process and assess the need for treatment, doctors and nurses normally need to remove the bandages from a wound, which damages the recovering tissue, often hurts the patient and requires hospital visits, particularly to avoid further infections. Furthermore, if a wound requires more than just visual inspection, other available methods include tissue biopsies, surface swabs or testing for pathogens — invasive and costly procedures that can take days and yet fail to produce useful treatment directions.
That is why ‘smart’ bandages, essentially wearable sensors that can monitor certain biomarkers during the healing process, have captured the attention of medical engineers. In the new study, the Russia-US team, led by Skoltech provost, Professor Keith Stevenson, explored electroanalytical methods that, thanks to their relative simplicity, sensitivity, durability, and other attractive characteristics, are particularly promising for clinical applications.
“Earlier stages of our research involved characterizing the sensor performance and demonstrating the sensitive and selective multianalyte detection in complex biofluid simulants that closely mimic real biological environments,” Stevenson said.
Read more at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)
Image: Electrochemical Detection in Wound Healing (Credit: Olja Simoska et al/ACS sensors)
