E-bandage Speeds Wound Healing

A self powering bandage capable of generating an electric field over an injury has been developed which has been demonstrated to have the ability to reduce healing time for skin wounds in rats, as published in ACS Nano.

Venous ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, non-healing surgical wounds, and other chronic skin wounds can pose serious problems. Different approaches have been used over the years to assist wound healing such as bandaging, dressings, exposure to oxygen and growth factor therapy with limited effectiveness.

Skin wound healing has been shown to be assisted with use of electrical stimulation, however the equipment for generation of the electrical field is often large and may require hospitalization. To address some of these issues this work was conducted to develop a flexible self powered bandage that could convert skin movements into a therapeutic electric field to assist wound healing.  

A wearable nanogenerator powers the e-bandage which was developed by overlapping sheets of copper foil, polyethylene terephthalate, and polytetrafluoroethylene. Skin movements which occur during normal activity or breathing are converted by the nanogenerator into small electrical pulses, this current flows into two working electrodes placed onto the skin on either side of the skin wound to produce a weak electric field.  

E-bandages and controls were placed over wounds on the backs of rats to test effectiveness: animals with wounds covered with the e-bandages were observed to have their wounds closed within three days as compared to 12 days for a control bandages without an electrical field; enhanced fibroblast migration, proliferation, and differentiation induced by the electric field were attributed for the faster wound healing.