A team of researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine has developed an electric field dressing that would effectively fight bacterial infections.
Using electricity as a new weapon against bacterial infections? This is what doctors at the Indiana University School of Medicine imagined. Their work led to the development of a bandage using an electric field to fight bacterial infections. The results were recently published in the journal Annals of Surgery.
Prevent bacterial biofilm formation
The electric field dressing actually works on the same principle as the bacteria themselves. What is called bacterial biofilm is a thin, viscous film of bacteria that forms on certain wounds, such as burns, post-surgical infections or cuts related to the insertion of medical equipment such as a catheter. These bacteria generate their own electric field to communicate with each other and create a bacterial biofilm. They then become more resistant and difficult to treat. According to various American health agencies, the formation of a bacterial biofilm is the cause of 65 to 80% of wound infections.
This “electric bandage” itself generates 1 volt of electricity through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or wound healing fluids. The electric charge created remains weak enough not to injure or electrocute the patient. This new generation bandage could also prevent the formation of new bacterial films on the treated wound.
The team of doctors from Indiana University is the first to embark on this field of research: no one had yet studied the possibility of treating these infections with a bandage using an electric field rather than treating them in the traditional way. with antibiotics.
A technology soon to be marketed
Their results show that this electric field-based treatment can be used alone but that its effectiveness is enhanced when used in addition to other forms of drug treatment. This discovery has the potential to kick-start significant changes in the way doctors treat patients whose infections have become resistant to antibiotics.
“These findings show for the first time that bacterial biofilms can be combated with an electric bandage,” said Chandan Sen, PhD, director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering and vice president of research at Indiana University. School of Medicine. They will have an impact in the surgical field, the presence of the biofilm being at the origin of many post-surgical complications.”
And the invention has already come out of the walls of the hospital: the American national agency Food and Drugs Association has just approved the marketing of an “electric bandage” for burns. The team is now testing the effectiveness of this technology on patients affected by burns.
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