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Once a wound has been completely cleaned and patched, it is covered with a bandage that, more often, should remain in place for a while to protect the wound of pathogens. Despite its cleanliness, however, there is always a chance that an infection will form, and this is where a new type of “intelligent” bandage has entered.
Intelligent bandage is intended to diagnose infections because they are starting to train, giving physicians the opportunity to deal with the issue before becoming a more important problem. The system works by incorporating tiny nanosensors into the bandage fibers; These sensors are composed of carbon nanotubes with wall-mounted walls that take hydrogen peroxide, which is produced when there are no harmful bacteria.
When nanosensors collect on hydrogen peroxide, their fluorescence changes detectably with a “miniaturized portable device”, depending on the researchers. This device would send a wireless smartphone alert to let them know that medical attention may be needed.
The intelligent bandage could be particularly useful for diabetics whose wounds take longer to heal and are more likely to form infections. By identifying a possible infection earlier, this could allow doctors to treat the problem early and potentially save the patient’s more drastic results, including objects such as amputation.
Additional research on smart bandages are needed, the next step is a phase that involves verification of technology using a petri dish full of the same type of cells you will find in a flesh injury. The tests involved small bandages like the one presented above, but researchers note that the same nanosensors could also be used in large bandages.
