Reusable ‘smart bandage’ can monitor wounds and aid healing

A smart bandage that can monitor chronic wounds and help them to heal has been developed by scientists, who say the device could aid people with diabetic ulcers, burns and non-healing surgical wounds.

According to figures from 2018, there are 2.2 million people in the UK with chronic wounds, costing the NHS £5.3bn a year. Now researchers have come up with a stretchable, wireless, bioelectronic system that can stick to the skin.

“The device consists of two parts – one reusable flexible printed circuit board and one disposable patch,” said Prof Wei Gao, a co-author of the research from the California Institute of Technology. “The disposable patch contains biosensors, electrodes, and drug-loaded hydrogels.”

The biosensors mean the “smart bandage” can monitor features of the wound such as its temperature, pH, and levels of substances including glucose, uric acid and lactate that provide insights into whether the wound is infected and its levels of inflammation.

The device allows electrical stimulation to be applied – a technique found to encourage wounds to heal but that has been hampered by bulky equipment. It also enables the controlled release of anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial drugs.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, researchers describe how they tested the smart bandages on wounds of diabetic mice and rats before and after infection.

Mice with smart bandages showed higher rates of wound closure and less scarring than mice whose wounds were not covered by the bandages.

The team say they expect costs in the tens of dollars for the reusable electronics part of the device, and a few dollars per disposable patch.