Post by plutronus on Feb 12, 2019 0:15:06 GMT -6
An e-bandage dramatically speeds wound-healing using electrical energy harvested from a patient’s body
Design News Magazine
Elizabeth Montalbano
02-05- 2019
02-05- 2019
Engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW.edu) developed a wound dressing, which uses the energy it harvests to send gentle electrical pulses to an injury site, treatment that helps significantly speed healing, they said in a UW news release.
Indeed, in tests on rodents, the so-called “e-bandage” reduced healing of wounds to three days instead of the usual two weeks it takes for them to completely heal, said Xudong Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at UW–Madison who led the research.
“We were surprised to see such a fast recovery rate,” he said in the news release. “We suspected that the devices would produce some effect, but the magnitude was much more than we expected.”
Indeed, in tests on rodents, the so-called “e-bandage” reduced healing of wounds to three days instead of the usual two weeks it takes for them to completely heal, said Xudong Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at UW–Madison who led the research.
“We were surprised to see such a fast recovery rate,” he said in the news release. “We suspected that the devices would produce some effect, but the magnitude was much more than we expected.”
Electricity is Beneficial
That electricity is beneficial to healing the damaged skin was not a surprise to the team; it’s something researchers have known for several decades. However, until now it’s been a far more complicated process to use this method to heal serious wounds, as most electrotherapy units in use today require bulky electrical equipment and complicated wiring, said Angela Gibson, professor of surgery at UW–Madison and a burn surgeon and director of wound-healing services at UW Health.
“Acute and chronic wounds represent a substantial burden in healthcare worldwide,” she said. “The use of electrical stimulation in wound healing is uncommon.”
The new dressing, however, is a much more straightforward and more convenient way to treat wounds with electricity, Wang said. The e-bandage is comprised of small electrodes linked to a band holding energy-harvesters called nanogenerators; these are looped around a patient’s torso. In this way, the device harvests energy by the natural expansion and contraction of the person’s ribcage during breathing, allowing the nanogenerators to deliver low-intensity electric pulses.
“The nature of these electrical pulses is similar to the way the body generates an internal electric field,” Wang said. Further, the pulses are not as intense as some that might be found in traditional electrotherapy, which can sometimes harm healthy tissue around a wound, he said.
Five Times More
Indeed, researchers showed that exposing cells to... >>to continue reading see:
“Acute and chronic wounds represent a substantial burden in healthcare worldwide,” she said. “The use of electrical stimulation in wound healing is uncommon.”
The new dressing, however, is a much more straightforward and more convenient way to treat wounds with electricity, Wang said. The e-bandage is comprised of small electrodes linked to a band holding energy-harvesters called nanogenerators; these are looped around a patient’s torso. In this way, the device harvests energy by the natural expansion and contraction of the person’s ribcage during breathing, allowing the nanogenerators to deliver low-intensity electric pulses.
“The nature of these electrical pulses is similar to the way the body generates an internal electric field,” Wang said. Further, the pulses are not as intense as some that might be found in traditional electrotherapy, which can sometimes harm healthy tissue around a wound, he said.
Five Times More
Indeed, researchers showed that exposing cells to... >>to continue reading see: