Despite the tremendous advances in medical technology in recent decades, the way we treat severe wounds has hardly changed. For centuries, we have relied on the same basic fabric dressing form to protect and heal wounds and burns. However, these tend to make the situation worse. Traditional dressings such as gauze bandages, foam dressings, and adhesive pads need to be changed frequently to protect the wound from infection and to assess the progress of healing, which often causes further trauma to the patient and interrupts the recovery process. The main complication is wound infection, which requires separate treatment, which further prolongs the hospital stay and recovery period, and may also cause severe scars.
Traditional therapies are not enough to deal with complex wounds
In the treatment of complex wounds, the inefficiency of traditional dressings may be most obvious, such as severe burns, chronic wounds, and injuries to areas that are difficult to dress (including hands or face).
When an incident occurs, the patient first feels pain, shock, and fear, and then during the entire rehabilitation process, the wound is treated and bandaged and the constant anxiety, pain and discomfort of frequent hospital visits.
They are often forced to endure a period of restricted movement, especially for wounds in difficult-to-penetrate areas with complex geometric shapes, such as the joints of the arms and legs, the neck area, and between the hands and fingers-such as the familiar “boxing” Glove-style bandages, or the “mummy” appearance often experienced by patients with facial burns. Then there are other obstacles to the patient’s daily life and social interactions, such as the inability to shower and clean properly when using traditional dressings, or the impact on emotional health and confidence when injured in exposed areas or requiring large amounts of facial dressings.
There have been some improvements in recent years, and technologically advanced solutions provide an alternative to traditional ordinary dressings that can help the healing process without having to change them frequently. However, they also need to be shaped to fit the wound area. This is very challenging for the medical team and painful for the patient, especially when it comes to the aforementioned difficult-to-dress areas and complex wound geometry. These dressings also need to be held in place-with staples, adhesives, bandages or sutures. All of these slow down the healing process, increase discomfort and require continuous medical care.
Although these advanced solutions are working, it is often too late to adopt new technologies in wound care.This is why Doctor complains They are dissatisfied with the tools available and why patient advocates think Patients’ concerns about wound management are often ignored.
Electrospinning is the future of wound care, but it has limitations
Electrospinning technology-the use of electrostatic force to create a nanofiber synthetic skin matrix-has begun to be recognized as an excellent alternative to potential wound dressings. It can be a very advantageous solution because certain additives can be “interwoven” into the fibers, such as antibacterial, silicon or collagen additives, or even cell-based therapies to further enhance matrix performance and the healing process.
However, the few solutions that do exist for electrospinning dressings still have some common shortcomings of traditional dressings. Manufactured on industrial-scale machines, they are limited in providing a “one size fits all” solution. They are provided to hospitals with fixed templates, which then need to be cut to a certain size by the medical team, and adhesives and secondary dressings are still needed to fix them. Wounds.
What is needed is to be able to provide a completely personalized solution to print the fibers directly on the wound. A type that can perfectly fit the contours of the body, and is directly attached to the wound, almost no secondary dressing is required.
Portability will promote personalization
The portable handheld electrospinning system will provide the necessary personalized services to enhance the treatment and healing process, shorten recovery time and improve mobility. Nanofibers can be directly attached to the wound, and the matrix formed by the fibers provides a scaffold that can biologically mimic the structure of human tissue. This can be enhanced with antibacterial and other therapeutic additives to further aid the healing process. The dressing is only a few microns thick, can bend with the skin, relieve pain, and does not require constant replacement, because its transparency allows the care team to review progress through the matrix. It is also important that patients can return to normal life faster, whether it is work, physical activity or something as simple as a daily shower. This can have a huge psychological impact and significantly improve the quality of life of patients during this challenging period.
These next-generation nanofiber dressings can heal wounds while regenerating new skin underneath. They can also “carry” other technologies, such as cell regeneration therapy. This can further accelerate the healing process, avoid surgery, reduce the need for sustained pain relief, and limit emotional trauma. The result is reduced physical and mental scars.
This is not some futuristic vision. Portable electrospinning technology has emerged, which can provide medical service providers-surgeons, emergency doctors and nurses-with the tools they need. Over time, this portability can be used for wound treatment outside the surgical ward, for emergency personnel, and even (eventually) for use in businesses or homes. Only by adopting cutting-edge technology can we create personalized wound treatments to meet the needs of the medical team and significantly improve the patient experience and quality of life.
Photo: SDI Productions, Getty Images
