Early detection and monitoring of chronic wounds using low-cost, omniphobic paper-based smart bandages

Aniket Pal, Debkalpa Goswami, Hugo E. Cuellar, Beatriz Castro, Shihuan Kuang, Ramses V. Martinez

The growing socio-economic burden of chronic skin wounds requires the development of new automated and non-invasive analytical systems capable of wirelessly monitoring wound status. This work describes the low-cost fabrication of single-use, omniphobic paper-based smart bandages (OPSBs) designed to monitor the status of open chronic wounds and to detect the formation of pressure ulcers. OPSBs are lightweight, flexible, breathable, easy to apply, and disposable by burning. A reusable wearable potentiostat was fabricated to interface with the OPSB simply by attaching it to the back of the bandage. The wearable potentiostat and the OPSB can be used to simultaneously quantify pH and uric acid levels at the wound site, and wirelessly report wound status to the user or medical personnel. Additionally, the wearable potentiostat and the OPSBs can be used to detect, in an in-vivo mouse model, the formation of pressure ulcers even before the pressure-induced tissue damage becomes visible, using impedance spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using inexpensive single-use OPSBs and a reusable, wearable potentiostat that can be easily sterilized and attached to a new OPSB during the dressing change, to provide long term wound progression data to guide treatment decisions.