Electrical Stimulation for Wound Healing: Opportunities for E-Textiles

Abstract

Ulcers and chronic wounds are a large and expensive problem, costing billions of pounds a year and affecting millions of people. Electrical stimulation has been known to have a positive effect on wound healing since the 1960s and this has been confirmed in numerous studies, reducing the time to heal, and the incidence of adverse events such as infections. However, because each study used different parameters for the treatment, inclusion criteria and metrics for quantifying the success, it is currently hard to combine them statistically and gain a true picture of its efficacy. As such, electrical stimulation has not been universally adopted as a recommended treatment for various types of wound.This paper summarises the biological basis for electrical simulation treatment and reviews the clinical evidence for its effectiveness. Notable is the lack of research focused on the electrodes used to deliver electrostimulation treatment. However, a significant amount of work has been conducted on electrodes for other medical applications in the field of e-textiles. This etextile work is reviewed with a focus on its potential in electrostimulation and proposals are made for future developments to improve future studies and applications for wound healing via electrical stimulation.

Magneto-responsive biocomposites in wound healing: from characteristics to functions

“…Electrical signal transduction, as one of the important means of intercellular information transmission, converts external stimulation into intracellular electrical signals through ion channels or receptors on the cell membrane, thereby triggering corresponding biological effects. [121][122][123][124] During the skin wound healing process, electrical signal Fig. 4 (A) Design and fabrication of MMM and graphic illustration of the massage concept; effect of stimulus duration on the expression of wound healing-related proteins a-SMA and K14.…”

Wound Healing Using Electrical Stimulation: A Review

“…The process of treating and healing wounds has always been a complex process which contains many stages involved within the skin to complete this process, including the process of coagulation, cellular proliferation, and infections associated with this process, so the process of healing wounds was accompanied by many developments in this field and the inclusion of some engineering and medical applications such as nanomaterials and generators [4,5,9]. Nanoelectric stimulation and other networks of medical fibers have high adaptability to the body and the ability to overcome most of the problems related to medical bandages to keep pace with developments in the medical field and accelerate the complex healing process [9][10][11]. The necessity of using stimulation devices may be when the internal electric fields of the skin decrease due to a certain disease such as chronic diabetes mellitus, so that these currents are responsible for wound healing and their decrease leads to a twenty-five percent reduction in the healing process [12].…”