Wounds that are difficult to heal can be painful, and if infections do occur, there can be serious consequences.
In order to check for infection in a wound, healthcare staff usually have to lift the dressing. It can hurt the wound and interfere with healing, and the risk of infection increases each time the wound is exposed.
Now researchers at Linköping University, among others, have developed a bandage that changes color if a wound begins to become infected.
“The ability to quickly tell if a wound is infected without lifting the wound dressing opens up a new type of wound treatment that could simplify care and improve the lives of patients with hard-to-heal wounds,” says Daniel Ailey, a professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biotechnology at UCSD. Linkoping, in a press release.
When a wound becomes infected, it has a higher pH and becomes more alkaline, long before there are visible signs of infection. The researchers took advantage of this by adding a dye to the bandage called bromothymol blue, which changes the color from yellow to blue above a certain pH value.
There is still a lot of testing and it will be five to 10 years before the bandage begins to be used in healthcare, according to Daniel Ailey.
The new findings are presented in the journal Today’s biographical material.
Dress the fresh wound
The pad is made of fine mesh nanocellulose that prevents bacteria and other microbes from entering. They also added bromothymol blue dye, which indicates early infection. To prevent damage to the material, it was calcined in silicone.
The new dressing is part of the development of a new type of wound treatment in outpatient care, as the researchers are also developing a new treatment for infection. It’s about antimicrobials that can be used locally on a wound rather than administering antibiotics that circulate throughout the body.
The bandage was developed by researchers at Linköping University in collaboration with colleagues at Orebro and Luleå Universities.
The research is funded, among others, by the Foundation for Strategic Research.
source: Linköping University
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