Applications of modern sensors and wireless technology in effective wound management

Abstract

The management of chronic wounds has emerged as a major health care challenge during the 21st century consuming, significant portions of health care budgets. Chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers, leg ulcers, and pressure sores have a significant negative impact on the quality of life of affected individuals. Covering wounds with suitable dressings facilitates the healing process and is common practice in wound management plans. However, standard dressings do not provide insights into the status of the wound underneath. Parameters such as moisture, pressure, temperature and pH inside the dressings are indicative of the healing rate, infection, and wound healing phase. But owing to the lack of information available from within the dressings, these are often changed to inspect the wound, disturbing the normal healing process of wounds in addition to causing pain to the patient. Sensors embedded in the dressing would provide clinicians and nurses with important information that would aid in wound care decision making, improve patient comfort, and reduce the frequency of dressing changes. The potential benefits of this enabling technology would be seen in terms of a reduction in hospitalization time and health care cost. Modern sensing technology along with wireless radio frequency communication technology is poised to make significant advances in wound management. This review discusses issues related to the design and implementation of sensor technology and telemetry systems both incorporated in wound dressings to devise an automated wound monitoring technology, and also surveys the literature available on current sensor and wireless telemetry systems.

Electrospun Nanofibers as Dressings for Chronic Wound Care: Advances, Challenges, and Future Prospects

“…There is also significant focus on incorporating drugs, silver nanoparticles, and plant‐derived compounds, including essential oils and honey, which exhibit antimicrobial properties. Finally, the real‐time detection of the wound bed environment, including pH or temperature, as indicators of the status of the wound has been explored . The integration of different types of biosensors within wound dressings has been proposed as the future of smart devices, capable of real time sensing and monitoring the wound.…”

Smart Wound Dressings for Diabetic Chronic Wounds

“…However, NO has a half-life less than 10 seconds making it difficult to measure. Investigators have tried to measure wound fluid NO levels indirectly through wound fluid nitrate, induced NO response and fasting urine [81,84]. Boykin concluded that deprivation of NO activity contributes to impaired healing and a comprehensive method to monitor NO, MMP, and bacterial load could accelerate healing in chronic wounds [77].…”

The external microenvironment of healing skin wounds

“…Incorporation of temperature‐sensing devices into dressings to monitor wound temperature is currently being investigated . The temperature in the wound bed can be continuously monitored by placing miniaturized sensors in the dressing.…”

“…The temperature in the wound bed can be continuously monitored by placing miniaturized sensors in the dressing. This can be achieved with a radio frequency identification device (RFID) or a platinum‐based sensor, using electrical resistance to calculate temperature . Infrared thermometers have been developed to assess the risk of ulceration by monitoring the temperature gradient of intact skin, correlating the rate of lower‐extremity ulceration with increased temperature of the skin at risk …”

“…Overall, compression therapy is an effective and fairly inexpensive treatment modality. However, pressure bandages can be cumbersome to apply, it can be difficult to achieve the desired pressure, and they often cause discomfort to the patient …”