Electric dressing promises treatment of chronic wounds

In tests on diabetic mice, wounds that were treated with these electric bandages healed 30 per cent faster than wounds treated with conventional bandages. The team’s findings are detailed in Science Advances.

Chronic wounds are open wounds that heal slowly, if at all. Diabetic foot ulcers are chronic wounds that are problematic because they often recur after treatment and significantly increase the risk of amputation and death. According to the team, it is well established that electric fields accelerate healing in chronic wounds.

One of the challenges associated with chronic wounds is that existing treatment options are very expensive.

The project’s goal was to develop technology that reduces the cost of treatment and for the dressing to be applied by people in their homes.

To this end, the team developed water-powered, electronics-free dressings (WPEDs), which are disposable wound dressings that have electrodes on one side and a small, biocompatible battery on the other.