Smart sensor knows 'hearing' healing wounds

Heriot-Watt University researchers (UK) have developed a new technology to help heal wounds by 'listening' to their progress.

According to the BBC (UK) channel, they created tiny electronic sensors that could listen to what was happening under the bandage.

New technology that helps without removing the tape knows how well the wound is.(Photo: Getty).

The cost of caring for injured people in the UK makes billions of pounds of health care a year. Although there are certain types of bandages that wound specifically, but want to know how the wound is healing, the doctor only has a primary method of removing the gauze and looking directly.

Dr. Michale Crichton Crichton.(Photo: BBC).

The research team was led by Dr. Michale Crichton, assistant professor of biomedical technology at Heriot-Watt University.

He said he wanted to put data into the wound healing process. He said: 'If we can put the sensor on the tissue surface around the wound or on the wound, can we really know what's going on with the wound? If we can do that, the sensor will tell us whether the wound will progress in one way or another. If we can measure the healing process over time, we don't need to constantly open the gauze to know that the wound is healing fast or getting worse. '

3D image of the wound.(Photo: BBC).

However, how will a healthy wound be 'heard' ? Before they knew it, researchers had to find out how the skin would react when cut.

That's why research team Sara Medina Lombardero cut a layer of fat from a sample of fresh pig skin that is similar to human tissue. Lombardero said: 'My job in the project is to find out how each layer of skin contributes to mechanical properties'.

Study how tissue responds to cuts.(Photo: BBC).

Lombardero cut the piece of pig skin into strips of a certain size, then made a small stain on each piece. She placed the sample under an optical X-ray system to get detailed 3D images of the skin structure beneath the surface. From the image, the researcher can tell the cut has cut through every layer of skin.

There are many types of wounds that cause different difficulties in treatment, such as by accident, surgery, long-term paralysis . Some wounds then become chronic.

The team could see the wound healing.(Photo: BBC).

Even a small cut on the delicate skin of the elderly can cause an infection and in some cases amputate the patient.

Listening to the body's tissue can help doctors take new approaches. However, this also requires sensors to be super small.

To help visualize the size of the sensor, Dr. Crichton used tweezers to pick up a piece of fat that was less than a grain of sugar. A sea of ​​this size must be able to transmit and receive sound.

Tiny sensor tracks how the sound moves through the tissue.(Photo: BBC).

Crichton said: 'What we want to do is basically put tiny devices that can move and transmit small waves. That sound can pass through the tissue. We will then see how quickly the sound is transmitted and how the tissue beneath the gauze develops. '

This two-year project is being supported by the Science and Technology Research Council.

The project hopes to open up new therapies thanks to wound "hearing" sensors. In the future, the treatment of cancer or a damaged part may also be supported by this 'wiretapping' technology.