Researchers have developed a 'smart bandage' that detects early tissue damage from pressure ulcers, or bedsores, before they can be seen by human eyes.
The bandage was developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley in collaboration with colleagues at University of California, San Francisco.
The smart bandage is fabricated by printing gold electrodes onto a thin piece of plastic and uses impedance spectroscopy to detect bedsores that are invisible to the naked eye.
"We set out to create a type of bandage that could detect bedsores as they are forming, before the damage reaches the surface of the skin," said Michel Maharbiz, a UC Berkeley associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and head of the smart-bandage project.
"We can imagine this being carried by a nurse for spot-checking target areas on a patient, or it could be incorporated into a wound dressing to regularly monitor how it's healing," Maharbiz said.
The researchers exploited the electrical changes that occur when a healthy cell starts dying.
They tested the thin, non-invasive bandage on the skin of rats and found that the device was able to detect varying degrees of tissue damage consistently across multiple animals.
Pressure ulcers, or bedsores, are injuries that can result after prolonged pressure cuts off adequate blood supply to the skin.
Areas that cover bony parts of the body, such as the heels, hips and tailbone, are common sites for bedsores. Patients who are bedridden or otherwise lack mobility are most at risk.
"By the time you see signs of a bedsore on the surface of the skin, it's usually too late," said Dr Michael Harrison, a professor of surgery at UCSF and a co-investigator of the study.
"This bandage could provide an easy early-warning system that would allow intervention before the injury is permanent. If you can detect bedsores early on, the solution is easy. Just take the pressure off," he said.
Bedsores are associated with deadly septic infections, and recent research has shown that odds of a patient dying are 2.8 times higher when they have pressure ulcers.
