The Power to Heal

Millions of people worldwide suffer from chronic wounds that either heal very slowly, or not at all. These wounds can appear due to diabetes, confinement to a bed, surgical complications, and for many other reasons. When a wound of this sort will not heal, it puts the individual at risk of serious infection, limb amputation, and even death, so treating the problem quickly and effectively is critically important.

Existing treatment options are typically extremely expensive, and they often require the patient to be treated in a clinic where they are immobilized for a lengthy period of time. These factors can put proper medical care out of the reach of many that need it, and it also causes people to avoid seeking treatment until a problem has already become unmanageable. But a team led by researchers at North Carolina State University has come up with a clever way to make treating chronic wounds inexpensive and simple. In fact, using their method is as easy as applying a bandage to the wound at home.

The researchers’ innovation makes use of a technique known as electrotherapy. Previous studies have shown that applying electrical stimulation to a wound causes it to heal much more effectively by inducing increased cell migration, blood flow, and cell proliferation in the area. But this stimulation needs to be applied for several hours each day, so performing the procedure in a clinic is very cumbersome for the patient and also exorbitantly expensive.

These factors were overcome by incorporating an electrical stimulation system into what is essentially a standard bandage. Each electronics-free bandage is equipped with a flexible, biocompatible magnesium-silver/silver chloride battery as well as electrodes that make contact with the wound. When water is applied to the bandage, it activates the battery which begins generating an electric field. This electric field lasts for several hours, and to keep the treatment going, one only needs to apply a new bandage.

For the best effect, the electrodes need to stay in close contact with the skin, both at the periphery of the wound and at its center. For this reason, they were designed to be flexible. This allows them to conform to the curves of the body and keep in contact with the skin, even if the wound is irregularly shaped or has significant depth to it.

In order to validate their approach, the team tested their bandages on diabetic mice with chronic wounds. When the device was in use, the wounds were found to close much more quickly. On average the bandages caused the wounds to heal 30 percent faster. This result was very similar to what would be expected with traditional, bulky electrotherapy instruments.

The bandages have been noted to have fluctuations in their electric fields. Moving forward, the researchers intend to find a solution that will even that out over time. They also plan to run some more experiments with the goal of ultimately running a clinical trial in humans, such that their bandages can be approved for real-world use.