Electronic Bandages Stimulate Vascular Growth, Aids in Faster Wound Healing

Researchers at University of Manchester are studying it to create electronic bandages that can speed up healing as electricity underlies just about every process in the body in some way.

Forty volunteers with two identical wounds on their inner arms using a punch biopsy were included for the study. One was allowed to heal naturally, while the other was treated with electric current delivered in pulses over a period of two weeks.

The results showed substantial increase in new vascular growth within the treated wound that grew smaller faster than the untreated one. The new findings will form the basis for the creation of electronic bandages and other wound healing devices that would be optimized to a specific task.

Dr Ardeshir Bayat, the principal investigator from U of Manchesters, said: "This research has shown the effectiveness of electrical stimulation in wound healing, and therefore we believe this technology has the potential to be applied to any situation where faster wound healing is particularly desirable, such as following human or veterinary surgical wounds, accidental, or military trauma and in sports injuries."

Source: Medindia