Battery-Free and Wireless Smart Wound Dressing for Wound Infection Monitoring and Electrically Controlled On-Demand Drug Delivery

Real-time monitoring wound status and providing timely therapies with smart wound dressing is a promising way to treat wound infections and accelerate the healing process. Herein, to establish a closed-loop monitoring and treatment system, a fully integrated, battery-free, and wireless smart wound dressing for wound infection detection and on-demand drug delivery is developed using flexible electronics. The smart wound dressing integrated with the near field communication module can realize wireless power harvest and data transmission, on-site signal processing, and drug delivery control, through the miniaturized circuit and smartphone. The temperature, pH, and uric acid of the wound is detected simultaneously by the developed sensors to assess wound conditions. Meanwhile, the drug delivery electrode in the dressing is used to provide on-demand infection treatment by the electrically controlled antibiotics delivery. Through in vitro antibacterial experiments and in situ animal studies, it is shown that the dressing can effectively inhibit bacterial growth and accelerate wound healing, which fully validates its effectiveness in the wound treatment. Utilizing the advantages of near-field communication and flexible electronics, the battery-free and integrated design of sensing and treatment provides a promising solution for the development of a closed-loop biomedical system integrating monitoring, diagnosis, and therapy.