Wound
Stitches and staples may be on their way to becoming a thing of the past, thanks to a developing technology known as laser tissue welding. Now, a new gold-based solder has been created, that could make tissue welds in regions such as the intestines much stronger and more reliable. Read More
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a foam that can be injected into the body cavities of battlefield wounded to protect them from internal abdominal bleeding. The agency hopes that when perfected, this polyurethane polymer foam will help the wounded to survive the critical minutes needed to transport them to proper surgical facilities for treatment. Read More
Sutures have come along way from the days of silk and catgut, but now they’re poised to make their biggest change in 3,000 years. They’re getting smart. John Rogers, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has invented a “smart” suture that contains ultrathin sensors that can detect when a wound is infected and may one day be able to actively promote healing as well. Read More
According the UK’s National Health Service, one person in 50 over the age of 80 will develop venous leg ulcers. The ulcers occur when high blood pressure in the veins of the legs causes damage to the adjacent skin, ultimately resulting in the breakdown of that tissue. While the ulcers can be quite resistant to treatment, a team of scientists is now reporting success in using a sort of “spray-on skin” to heal them. Read More
Even the smallest wound is potentially serious, so something as simple as a finger plaster and a little disinfectant can make the difference when it comes to preventing a nasty infection. But a dressing can do more than just keep out germs. That’s the idea behind work of the Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, where Prof. Dimos Poulikakos and his team of engineers and biologists are developing a new plaster that not only protects a wound from infection, it can also accelerate healing through the use of specially contoured silicone that promotes cell migration. Read More
Experimental dressing directs the growth of blood vessels over wounds
In the not-too-distant future, wounds may be covered not just with regular bandages, but with special "microvascular stamps" that promote and direct the growth of new blood vessels. A team of scientists from the University of Illinois have already created such a dressing, which could ultimately have applications far beyond the healing of cuts. Read More
Hydrogel helps grow new scar-free skin over third degree burns
Third-degree burns typically require very complex treatment, and leave nasty scars once they've healed. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, however, are reporting success at treating such burns on lab mice, using a new type of hydrogel that grows new skin (as opposed to scar tissue) over burn sites. The gel contains no drugs or biological components - it's made mainly from water and dissolved dextran, which is a sugar-like polymer. Read More
Researchers have developed a fiber that changes color in response to temperature with the aim of creating a smart bandage that can indicate the state of underlying wounds and warn of infection. With the ability to show temperature changes of less than 0.5 of a degree Celsius, the smart bandage would allow for easier and faster identification of healing problems that are typically accompanied by an increase or decrease in local temperature, such as infection or interruptions to blood supply. Read More
When it comes to “painless” bandages, many of us might assume that they’re designed mainly for children, who simply don’t like the sting that comes with the removal of conventional products. The fact is, however, that approximately 1.5 million patients in U.S. health care facilities receive skin injuries caused by bandage removal every year. Many of these patients are elderly, require repeated tapings in the same area, or have fragile skin for other reasons. It’s for people like these that 3M designed its new Kind Removal Silicone Tape. Read More
When the sutures are removed from a surgical incision, the natural tension of the surrounding skin starts to pull the two edges of the wound away from one another. While the incision site will still usually heal, that wound-opening mechanical stress causes excessive scar tissue to form. Researchers from Stanford University, however, have created a new type of dressing that removes such stress, and has been shown to dramatically reduce scarring. Read More
