Internal wounds are tricky business, especially when they involve gastrointestinal injuries and carry the risk of leaking gut bacteria to other tissues in the body.
Xuanhe Zhao and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a dressing that solves this issue. This special dressing is degradable, transparent and acts like a duct tape. It is sticky on one side and forms a flexible hydrogel that molds onto the shape of the wound and helps it heal. It is essentially an adhesive wound dressing that works well in the wet environment of the internal body.
The dressing has proven to help gut wounds heal faster and better in rats and pigs. Zhao and colleagues published their findings in Science Translational Medicine. They hope to develop a similar dressing for use in humans via their newfound company SanaHeal.
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