(WHS-P74) Clinical Applications of Wearable Electroceutical Devices for Chronic Wound Healing: A Systematic Review
Friday, May 17, 2024
7:30 AM – 5:00 PM East Coast USA Time
Background: The need to optimize the use of electroceutical therapy for the site specific repair of chronic wounds has received tremendous attention in the last 20 years. Devices for chronic wound healing utilizing direct current, pulsed, or alternating electric current have been explored to stimulate the body’s cellular and molecular responses towards enhancing chronic wound healing, especially to bridge the persistent inflammatory phase associated with most chronic wounds which consequently delay the healing process.
Methods: This systematic review aimed to identify devices that utilize electrical stimulation to enhance chronic wound healing. This study followed the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist. A literature search was conducted on studies published from 2000 to 2023 using Google Scholar, PubMed and ScienceDirect with the following keywords: wearable devices used for wound healing, wearable technologies used in wound healing, bioelectronic devices for wound healing, electroceutical devices used for wound healing. Inclusion criteria for published articles considered are specific to electroceutical devices that harness electrical stimulation for chronic wound healing. Exclusion criteria used to screen articles include wearable devices for monitoring body physiological and biochemical markers, devices delivering medication for infection control, devices using other wound healing modalities without electro-stimulation, and wearable electroceutical devices for acute wound healing. Titles and abstracts were screened to avoid duplicity and included those only with clinical data relevant to this review.
Results: A literature search revealed a total of 2235 related articles that mention the use of electrical stimulation. Out of these, 29 utilize electrical stimulation to enhance wound healing. Present wearable technologies support the possibility of using electrical stimulation as a concurrent or supplementary therapy in the management of chronic wound healing by harnessing the body’s endogenous electric field generated by ions. However, there is no standardized protocol that compares these various modalities to point out the ideal technology needed for translation into clinical use.
Conclusion: Wearable devices utilize various electro-stimulation patterns which include direct, alternating, and pulsed electric currents to stimulate cells, endogenous electric fields, angiogenesis, and growth factors for accelerated healing. The ideal device design remains an active research field for biomedical engineers. The need for soft-flexible devices in clinically-relevant form factors with occlusive and transparent wound dressings are necessary for such technologies to serve as adjuvant or primary treatment modalities for chronic wound healing.