Artificial leather Burn bandages

Despite significant improvements in treatment methods, as well as efforts made by doctors and medical staff, many patients with severe burns die, and in almost 70% of cases – as a result of sepsis. A new wound dressing can significantly reduce this number.

Professor Meital Zilberman from the Department of Biomedical Technologies at Tel Aviv University received a new wound dressing material consisting of biodegradable fibers filled with medicinal substances, for example, antibiotics that promote the healing process. After completing their mission, the fibers completely decompose without harm to the body. An article published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research – Applied Biomaterials says that in two days such a dressing can completely destroy infectious bacteria.

According to scientists, to date, very few such materials are known that can not only release drugs, but also undergo controlled biodegradation.

Although the idea of such a material is simple, the same cannot be said about the technology of its manufacture. The dressing should maintain an optimal level of humidity, while at the same time protecting the wound. Like the skin, bandages should ensure the outflow of fluid from the wound and infected tissue at an optimal rate. If this process occurs too quickly, the wound dries up and does not heal properly. If it occurs slowly, the risk of infection increases.

Professor Silberman's "second skin" combines mechanical and physical properties similar to living skin with what doctors call a "predetermined antibiotic release curve." The new material avoids additional injuries when cleaning wounds and changing bandages, and high doses of antibiotics when applied topically destroy harmful bacteria before they have time to enter the body and cause the spread of infection, sepsis and death, and do not have a toxic effect on the body as a whole.

Now Professor Silberman is starting the first clinical trials on animals. So far, her dressing material has passed physical and mechanical tests in vitro, as well as laboratory tests to suppress bacterial activity.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Tel Aviv University: A Second Skin23.11.2009