NEW DELHI: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), with the support of its school of international biodesign, has developed a wound healing device for early healing that also reduces the chances of infection among patients with large wounds.
Professor Sushma Sagar from the AIIMS trauma centre, who received the institute’s research award for best innovative technology, told TOI that two successful trials with the battery-operated device were done on at least 100 patients admitted to the trauma centre in the last two years.
She said the device has a combination therapy of “negative pressure as well as oxygen delivery” to large exudative wounds and helps in removing exudate, reducing edema and increasing vascularity.
It also helps in reducing microbial infection by providing regulated doses of oxygen to the wound. Besides, it helps in wound contraction and healthy tissue formation for improved healing.
“We have to change the dressing very frequently as they get wet easily. There is a need for such devices to take care of large wounds which occur due to trauma, burns, diabetes or in the case of chronic wounds,” she said, adding that oxygen delivery to the wound is beneficial and it has been proven in international studies too. If a normal wound heals in 30 days, then through local oxygen treatment it will heal in 7-10 days.
Explaining the working of the device, Dr Sagar said that healthcare workers fit a layer of foam dressing to the shape of the wound.
The dressing is then sealed with a film, which has an opening where a sieve-like tube is attached. When the tube is connected to the machine, it sucks the discharge /exudate due to negative pressure. The machine has an attachment for the canister where fluids get collected.
The negative pressure reduces wound discharge and additional oxygen delivery by another tube helps in decreasing infection from the wound. It also helps the wound heal by promoting the growth of new blood vessels.
This combination therapy can be a big boon for large wounds and can avoid multiple changes of dressing. Such combination therapy devices are not available in the market.
“Each dressing can last for almost five days by using this device,” she said, adding that there was no need to change the dressing every day but the container can be changed when filled. She further said that home-based therapy can be given by trained nurses or paramedics.
Negative pressure wound therapy is available in the market but expensive.
The device developed by AIIMS is likely to cost less, doctors said.
