At the Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sutures have been developed that are able to monitor the integrity of the wound, detect tissue micromovements and detect the presence of inflammatory processes.
Scientists believe the new sutures will help patients with Crohn’s disease recover faster after surgery to remove part of the intestine. However, these sutures can also be used for wound healing and after surgical interventions in other parts of the body where control of the wound healing process is needed.
This is possible thanks to an electronic sensor that is embedded in a medical silk thread coated with a conductive polymer. This sensor responds to wireless signals, which allows doctors to monitor the condition of the stitches after surgery. A special wireless device is used to monitor the result.
When closing the wound, an isolated section of the medical thread passes through the electronic module and is fixed with medical silicone on electrical contacts. This area acts as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and can be read by an external reader.
If the frequency of the reflected signal changes, this may indicate possible surgical complications in the wound area.
The authors report that sutures can also be used to transport drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, including the steroid dexamethasone and the monoclonal antibody adalimumab. In the future, they plan to improve this technique, writes Gazeta.ru.
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