
Millions of Americans live with chronic wounds, which can take months or more to heal — if they ever do.
Left untreated, chronic wounds can become infected and, in the worst cases, result in loss of life or limb. Unfortunately, many patients are left with little choice but to let their wounds fester and hope for the best. The options currently available are either largely ineffective or prohibitively expensive.
Medical researchers have sought better treatments for some time. Studies show a steady application of weak electric pulses holds promise for certain chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers — one of the most common chronic wounds in the U.S. and a leading cause of nontraumatic lower-extremity amputations. But today’s best electric wound dressings remain complex, cumbersome and too costly for the average patient.
“A lot of the current options are sophisticated, electronics-based, delicate and not very easy to use,” says Amay Bandodkar, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State University.
With this problem in mind, Bandodkar and a team of experts set out to look for a solution. And they might have found one.
Enlisting partners from Columbia Engineering, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State’s Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University, Georgia Tech, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, the team received grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NC State’s Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST).
Thanks to DARPA and ASSIST’s support, the team developed an electric bandage that healed chronic wounds 30% faster than conventional bandages in tests on diabetic mice.
The disposable wound dressings have electrodes on one side and a small, “biocompatible” battery on the other. Simply apply a drop of water to activate it, and the bandage will produce an electric field for several hours.
This fall, NC State’s Office of Research Commercialization filed a patent on Bandodkar’s behalf for the electric bandage technology.
“Anybody, without any training, should be able to use these bandages,” Bandodkar says.
Bandodkar’s research interests have long centered on batteries that are non-toxic and biocompatible. When he realized how many chronic-wound patients would benefit from a better electric bandage, it didn’t take long for the light bulb to go off.
“So it should be fairly easy to translate it from the lab to the market,” Bandodkar says. And he estimates the overhead costs could be as low as “a couple of dollars per dressing.”
Bandodkar is the co-corresponding author of a paper on this work, “Water-powered, electronics-free dressings that electrically stimulate wounds for rapid wound closure,” published in Science Advances.
For more information, including how to inquire about potentially licensing this technology, contact Assistant Director of Licensing Bradley Aycock at braycock@ncsu.edu.
This article was originally published on November 5, 2024, by Matt Simpson at NC State Research and Innovation News and can be read here.