It’s a dilemma anyone who has worn a bandage has faced: How can you tell if a wound is healing without taking off the dressing and potentially damaging delicate new skin?
A different kind of ‘smart’ bandage described in Frontiers in Physics could provide a promising, non-invasive answer. It contains a sensor that measures wound moisture levels and transmits readings to a phone, without removing bandages. By changing bandage geometry and materials, researchers hope to develop solutions for various wound types. Spanish researchers applied a conductive polymer called poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) onto gauze using screen printing, and then incorporated the gauze into commercially available bandage materials.
“We also incorporated a cheap, disposable and bandage-compatible RFID tag, similar to those used for clothing security tags, into the textile patch,” said co-author Marta Tessarolo, Ph.D., a mechanical engineer with the University of Bologna.
The tag wirelessly communicates moisture-level data, alerting clinicians of a needed dressing change.
From the December 2021 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
