Smart bandage changes colour to track healing wounds

A ‘smart’ bandage which changes colour as a healing wound improves or worsens has been developed by Australian researchers.

They are hoping that the innovative new creation will lead to better treatments for injuries and conditions such as leg ulcers.

The smart bandage works by changing from red to blue to mirror the temperature of the wound or ailment.

If a wound became infected, the smart bandage would change colour to red to as the temperature around the wound increased.

However, if the smart bandage changed colour to blue it would indicate that the wound was getting cooler; a sign of a compromised blood supply.

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“If the wound becomes infected then it typically gets warmer. It would get cooler if there were, for example, a compromised blood supply,” Louise Van der Werff, the lead inventor of the smart bandage, said in an interview.

The smart bandage has been developed using a fibre consisting of liquid crystals that react to different temperatures.

Temperature changes in a wound of less than half a degree Celsius are recognised by the smart bandage and it changes its colour accordingly.

Van der Werff, who is currently completing a doctorate at the University of Melbourne, is hoping that future developments of the smart bandage fibre will see it being incorporated into a fabric which can then be attached or woven into a wound dressing.

She says the main target patients for the smart bandage are those with chronic wounds, leg and pressure ulcers; ailments that often take a long time to heal properly.

People most commonly affected by these conditions are the elderly, obese and people with diabetes.