Although most people don't think twice about small wounds like cuts, there's actually a lot more to worry about such as contracting infections, which can eventually lead to organ damage after it starts to spread throughout the body.
In fact, once the infection spreads to the rest of the body and reaches the point of organ damage, the person's likelihood of recovery will continue to decrease as the infection progresses.
To reduce this risk, scientists have created a prototype of wound dressing - they're basically band-aids - at the University of Bath (with other English institutes) that can detect if any bacteria is present in the wound during the early stages of infection.
Apparently, "bacteria that colonize wounds tend to create and live in a biofilm, a slimy substance made of external DNA, proteins and complex sugars." This new form of wound dressing reacts with those biofilms, thereby emitting the bright glowing color on the dressing.
Talking to IFLScience, research co-author Dr. Toby Jenkins explains:
"The dressing detects changes in wound bacterial activity. All wounds have some bacteria in [them] - whilst they are kept in check by immune clearance this is not a problem, but when bacteria start to form biofiilms and critically colonize the wound, pathogenic changes can result. Our dressing will measure this critical colonization point."
This intelligent wound dressing was even tested with bacteria that commonly induce infections, such as E. coli and S. aureus, among a few others. In addition, the dressing was also testing on colonies that had different ages -- which basically means they have different biofilm developments as well.
The online publication further reports:
"The detection rate for biofilms from pathogenic, or harmful, strains was surprisingly fast. In lab tests, the wound dressing could reveal the presence of bacteria within four hours from the initial inoculation, but for an established biofilm, the response was within minutes."
This new technology could be useful in post-surgery recovery cases. Dr. Jenkins notes: "If used appropriately, we believe it can be used for early diagnosis of post-surgical infection and hence (indirectly) in reducing incidences of sepsis."
However, the wound dressing technology won't be seen or tried by consumers just yet. Dr. Jenkins says that safety testing procedures and manufacturing details are still in the works. The research team intends to conduct a clinical study in approximately three years.
