Wounds of any kind are quite prone to bacterial infection which brings dangerous complications along with it if left untreated or unnoticed in timely fashion. A refreshingly new and intelligent dressing type with smart bandage has been invented which can certainly help the physicians in getting some early warning and detection of bacterial infection. A team of researchers in United Kingdom has revealed a prototype of color changing Smart bandage. This bandage contains tiny capsule infused with gel like substance which releases non-toxic fluorescent dye in an event of rise in bacteria population. This simply acts as an early warning system by changing the color of bandage to denote occurrence of bacterial infection.
Smart bandage to aid physicians in discovering bacterial infection
This research is being led by Toby Jenks who is a professor of biophysical chemistry at University of Bath. Though no test has been done on humans but inventors has claimed that it offers quite faster and timely alert to the health care professionals for any infection. This will be enough to provide right kind of medication in order to prevent patients for getting any more sick. Jenkins had stated that this new smart bandage can even help in avoiding the need of antibiotics.
Researcher takes their tests further on Smart bandage
In order to improve the usability of this new intelligent smart bandage the researcher are working close collaboration with the clinical researcher at University of Bristol pediatric burn center. It should be noted that clinicians tends to over prescribe the antibiotic for treating the burns. The reason for doing so is to prevent the spread of any infection and this result in the development of antibiotic-restraints among the patients. This infection detecting bandage comes as a rescue as it can give prior detection of infection which will not just lower the use of antibiotic drugs but it will also provide peace of mind to the patients. Jenkins has said that use of this bandage in surgical wounds will help in better monitoring of the patients health.
How this color changing Smart bandage works?
All wound tends to get colonized by bacteria and larger growth in harmful bacteria can make it difficult for the immune system to handle. This transition usually takes hours to become evident for the physicians but color changing can denote this change in bacterial information by changing its color.
When bacterial population grows in the density then it starts production of toxins. This color changing bandage has an outer layer of dye containing capsules which gets punctured by this toxin and starts to release the dye which fluoresces when it gets diluted by the surrounding gel present in bandage. This glowing bandage can give a timely indication of the spread of bacteria in the wound and it can help physicians in providing right course of treatment.
One of the biggest challenges in medicine is to accurately diagnose the wound infections. This color changing dressing bandage offers some great insight but its clinical utility is yet to be proven.
