New Products and Industry News

Topical dressing manages radiation dermatitis

Stratpharma Inc USA (San Diego, CA) launched StrataXRT, the first-of-its-kind topical film-forming wound dressing designed specifically to manage radiation dermatitis. The dressing is listed by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The innovative, flexible dressing promotes a moist wound healing environment for faster reepithelialization after radiation therapy. It was developed to treat radiation dermatitis; toxic and compromised skin; first- and second-degree burns; irritated, dry, itchy skin; and red, inflamed skin by drying after application to form a protective layer to prevent symptoms, reduce the inflammatory response, and provide relief of pain and discomfort. Ideal for large surface areas and contoured skin, the dressing can assist in providing the best outcome for patients and improving quality of life.

For more information, visit www.stratpharma.com. 

Antimicrobial matrix acknowledged as innovative

Organogenesis Inc (Canton, MA) announced that its wound management matrix, PuraPly AM, has been named to the “Top 10 Innovations in Podiatry” by Podiatry Today (HMP Communications, Malvern, PA), an award-winning publication on the latest in podiatry. It was chosen as a top innovation for the product’s impact on reducing wound bioburden.

The matrix is a United States Food and Drug Administration 510(k)-cleared Class II medical device intended for management of acute and chronic wounds. It combines purified native collagen with polyhexamethylene biguanide, producing broad antimicrobial coverage that protects against a wide range of biofilm agents.

For more information, visit www.organogenesis.com. 

Smart bandage lights up wound healing

A Swiss research team is developing a high-tech wound dressing aimed at helping clinicians gather relevant data about the condition of a wound without removal. Sponsored by Nano-Tera, (Lausanne, Switzerland), the project (titled Flusitex; fluorescence sensing integrated into medical textiles), uses a fluorescence-measuring device to monitor metabolic parameters through sensors in the dressing. These sensors detect the wound’s pH level; when illuminated by the measuring device, the sensors glow and may change color based on the presence of exudate.

The research team is a partnership between the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA; Dübendorf, Switzerland), ETH Zurich (Zürich, Switzerland), Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM; Neuchâtel, Switzerland), and University Hospital of Zürich (Switzerland).

For more information, visit www.empa.ch. 

Total contact cast has easy removal

Wound Kair Concepts (Benbrook, TX) announced that TrueKast with QuickSaw, a total contact cast (TCC) designed to ease removal anxiety and frustration, is now available. The TCC is a rigid and effective lightweight system accompanied by an attached walking heel that ensures compliance during ambulation. The patent-pending removal technology allows the cast to be detached from the inside out in approximately 40 seconds without airborne infected cast dust or fear of a vibrating or rotating cast saw.

For more information, visit www.truekast.com. 

Wound care course presented in Singapore

HMP (Malvern, PA), a leading health care content and continuing medical education company (and our parent company), announced the expansion of the Wound Certification Prep Course (WCPC) to Singapore through a partnership with Changi General Hospital (Singapore). Scheduled for October 5–6, 2017, the course will review the stages of wound healing and topical therapeutic interventions for 25 nurses and physicians preparing to take their Certified Wound Care Associate (CWCA), Certified Wound Specialist (CWS), or Certified Wound Specialist Physician (CWSP) board examinations on October 7.

The course, led by Greg Patterson, MD, FACS, CWS, is the first international WCPC offering and marks a progression of the company’s global portfolio expansion. The WCPC is the only course recommended by the American Board of Wound Management Foundation.

For more information, visit www.woundprepcourse.com. 

Wound care exhibit open in Chicago

Organogenesis Inc (Canton, MA) announced its 2017 sponsorship of the history and future of wound healing sciences exhibition at the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago, IL). The exhibit, “Wound Healing: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Technology,” explores the history of wound healing from ancient applications to modern biotechnology innovations and will showcase various artifacts from different time periods. Organogenesis hopes to continue educating the public about advanced wound care treatments, their uses for acute and chronic wounds, and the direction of future wound care therapies.

The exhibit is featured in the Elenaor Robinson Countiss House on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, and will remain on display through 2018.

For more information, visit www.organogenesis.com. 

Health care company wins national award and contract

Crawford Healthcare (Doylestown, PA) recently received the Supplier Horizon Award from Premier Inc (Charlotte, NC) at the 2017 Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition. Crawford was 1 of 11 suppliers to receive the award and was recognized for its exceptional local customer service, value creation through clinical excellence, and commitment to affordable health care costs. The award grants the company a tenure of <3 years as a contracted supplier for Premier’s alliance of 3750 hospitals and 130 000 other provider organizations.

For more information, visit www.crawfordhealthcare.com. 

Use of probiotics in wound healing explored

Researchers are investigating the use of probiotics to combat the infections that commonly affect wounds. Catherine O’Neill, PhD, senior lecturer in the Division of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Science at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, showed so-called friendly bacteria, Lactobacillus, could protect skin cells in the laboratory from Staphylococcus aureus infection. Susan E. Erdman, assistant director in the Division of Comparative Medicine at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, and her team examined the effect of adding probiotics to the diet of mice and found feeding L. reuteri resulted increased oxytocin, which which in turn was accompanied by a faster rate of wound healing in older mice. Juan Carlos Valdéz, PhD, and colleagues published a study in Clinical Microbiology and Infection showing that L. plantarum can inhibit the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa both in vitro and in a mouse model of burn wound healing. Sandeep Kathju, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, and colleagues investigated the effect of L. plantarum on P. aeruginosa-induced sepsis in a mouse burn model.

What about humans? Dr. Valdéz and colleagues performed a small study involving 8 patients with a mix of second-degree and third-degree burns and found L. plantarum was as efficient as silver sulphadiazine, a commonly used antimicrobial, in preventing and reducing burn wound infections. Richard J. Kagan, MD, a professor of surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, and colleagues published a clinical study on pediatric burn patients in the Journal of Burn Care & Research that found the wounds of patients treated with probiotics healed at a faster rate than patients treated with a placebo.

More research is necessary but initial studies are promising. 

Strong, slug-inspired adhesive helps wounds heal

A team of researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University has created a super-strong, nontoxic adhesive that binds to biological tissues. Inspired by the glue produced by a slug, the double-layered hydrogel material demonstrates both high adhesion strength and strain dissipation, making it useful in a variety of medical applications.

As reported in the journal Science, Jianyu Li, PhD wanted to improve medical adhesives and turned to the slug, which secretes a special kind of mucus that can glue it in place. This glue was previously determined to contain positively charged proteins, which inspired Li and his colleagues to create a double-layered hydrogel consisting of an alginate-polyacrylamide matrix supporting an adhesive layer with positively charged polymers protruding from its surface.

The polymers bond to biological tissues via 3 mechanisms: electrostatic attraction to negatively charged cell surfaces, covalent bonds between neighboring atoms, and physical interpenetration. The equally important matrix layer of the adhesive includes calcium ions that are bound to the alginate hydrogel via ionic bonds. When stress is applied to the adhesive, the ionic bonds break, allowing the matrix to absorb a large amount of energy before its structure becomes compromised.

Testing on a variety of both dry and wet pig tissues showed the glue bound to all of them with significantly greater strength than other medical adhesives. In additional testing, it caused no tissue damage or adhesions to surrounding tissues when applied to a liver hemorrhage in mice, side effects that were observed with both super glue and a commercial thrombin-based adhesive. Researchers are eagerly anticipating the development of this glue into a new technology for surgical repair and wound healing.