Skip to main content

The disappearing bandage that fights infections and saves lives

A bandage that gradually releases infection-fighting drugs and then dissolves once the wound has healed could help thousands of burns victims.

The high-tech dressing, pioneered at Tel Aviv University in Israel, is designed to combat the high rate of infections among burns patients.

It's estimated that as many as 70 per cent of patients with very severe burns die from infections that penetrate the body through damaged skin and wounds.

Standard care involves regular cleaning and changing of bandages, which can disrupt the healing process.

One of the major problems doctors face is that if these kinds of wounds are too dry, they won't heal fully; if they are too moist, there is a high risk of contamination by bacteria.

To get round this, Israeli scientists have developed special fibres that are woven in such a way that they can 'store' significant quantities of antibiotic drugs.

These fibres are used to make a dressing that sits on top of a burn and allows the medicine to seep slowly into the wound. 

The fibres are also biodegradable, which means that after a few days they dissolve harmlessly, removing the need to change the bandage constantly and expose the wound.

Tests show the experimental dressing can wipe out dangerous bacteria within days.

'We've developed the first wound dressing that releases antibiotics and biodegrades in a controlled manner,' says Professor Meital Zilberman, who is a member of the research team.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BE guidelines regarding investigator

BE guidelines recommend investigator should possess appropriate medical qualification, experience for conducting pharmacokinetic studies Can chairperson of EC directly write to sponsor to clarify some of the queries of clinical trial raised in EC meeting? Dr. Sreevatsa Please see an extract from FDA's comment on IRB-sponsor relationship. The interrelationship and interaction between the research sponsor (e.g., drug, biologic and device manufacturers), the clinical investigator and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) may be very complex. The regulations do not prohibit direct sponsor-IRB contacts, although, the sponsor-IRB interaction customarily occurs through the investigator who conducts the clinical study. The clinical investigator generally provides the communication link between the IRB and the sponsor. Such linkage is agreed to by the sponsors and investigators when they sign forms FDA-1571 and FDA-1572, respectively, for drug and biologic studies or a...
Post a Comment
Read more

ICH GCP requires EC members to be independent of investigator and sponsor to avoid conflicts of interest

Can an Ethics Committee member e.g. layman/chairman or anyone in the committee participate in the trial as a subject? Vidya If an Ethics Committee member becomes a trial subject on a trial that he/she was involved in approving then there has been a major conflict of interest. The following situations need to be considered: ● IEC member reviews study without any prior knowledge of the study, votes, and then afterwards is approached by clinical research team to participate. Possibly this is OK but the member should no longer be part of the IEC that reviews that study. This will be difficult in practice, so therefore it is not advisable. ● IEC member already knows about the study and is voting in order to be able to participate. This is clearly not acceptable and made worse if there is additional financial incentive for the study (e.g. volunteer study). ICH GCP requires Ethics Committee members to be independent of the investigator and the sponsor to avoid confl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Combination Vaccine for Kids withdrawn

A vaccine that combines conventional MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) with Chikenpox has been withdrawn in the United States due to a higher rate of seizures in children. In a study children aged 12 to 23 months who received the combined MMR cum Chickenpox vaccine had double the rate of seizures compared to children who got separate vaccine for MMR and chickenpox. This equates to one additional case of convulsion per 2000 vaccinations.
Post a Comment
Read more