Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created coated sutures with sensors that could monitor wounds and speed up healing. The electronic sutures, which contain ultra-thin silicon sensors integrated on polymer or silk strips, can be threaded through needles and, in animal tests, researchers were able to lace them through skin, tighten, and knot them without degrading the devices.
The sensors can precisely measure temperature, and because increased heat indicates infection, deliver heat to a wound site, which is known to aid healing.
John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering, and inventor of the smart sutures, believes that they could also be improved to provide electrical stimulation to heal wounds. "Ultimately, the most value would be when you can release drugs from them in a programmed way," he says. The researchers could do that by coating the electronic threads with drug-infused polymers, which would release the chemicals when triggered by heat or an electrical pulse.
All the materials used in the devices are safe for use in the body, and the biggest challenge was to make the sutures flexible, Rogers says. In addition, they are working on making the devices wireless.
