Researchers have invented a high-tech bandage that helps damaged skin regrow and then safely dissolves into the body, London’s Daily Mail reported Monday.
The bandage acts as a type of ‘scaffolding’ for skin cells to latch onto and after six to eight weeks when new skin tissue has formed, the dressing is absorbed into the bloodstream in the same way dissolvable stitches are.
This bandage could be helpful for patients who have suffered extensive burns that cannot be repaired with conventional skin grafts, or for patients with deep ulcers that won’t heal on their own.
The technique has been under development for several years at the University of Sheffield in England.
VIDEO: Click here to see a bandage called Medi-Honey, which is being used in the United States.
The bandage is so thin it looks and feels like tissue paper. It is composed of polymer that has been spun at such a high speed, the fibers are barely visible to the naked eye.
After doctors scrape a few skin cells from the patient's arm or leg, they place them on the bandage in a lab where the cells spend the next several weeks growing. The bandage is then grafted onto the wound and that is when the bandage begins to disappear, leaving the healthy skin in place.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox