Identifying that a covered wound may becoming infected can be very tricky to diagnose without removal for examination. However scientists at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Munich have been designing a new type of wound dressing that changes colour to indicate that a wound is becoming infected.
The dressings have a pH indicator dye within their material that reacts to different pH values. Healthy skin and healed wounds would usually show a pH of 5 or below. However is the wounds pH changes from the acid into the alkaline range, it indicates complications in the healing of the wound and the dressing with indicate this with a colour change.
“If the pH value is between 6.5 and 8.5 an infection is frequently present and the indicator color strip turns purple, “ says Dr. Sabine Trupp, a scientist at the EMFT.
The new dressings allow wounds to now be regularly checked from the outside of the dressing without any disruption to the healing process underneath.
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