Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, with colleagues at UC San Francisco created a bandage that uses electrical currents to detect pressure ulcers, or bedsores, while they are still forming, reports Infection Control Today.
The problem of pressure ulcers or bedsores affects about 2.5 million American residents and costs $11 billion annually, reports Infection Control Today. They are a result of prolonged pressure cuts off an inadequate blood supply to the skin. Patients who are bedridden are at the greatest risk.
The 'smart bandage' could provide a means to combat that problem. "Our device is a comprehensive demonstration that tissue health in a living organism can be locally mapped using impedance spectroscopy," says study lead author Sarah Swisher, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley, to Infection Control Today.
