En studie av plåstret PROCELLERA inverkan på sårläkning

Abstract

During the last five decades, a lot of research has been done to evaluate results of healing wounds with electricity. The wound healing process is very complex and to gain deeper insight, one must have knowledge of many differ- ent science branches such as medicine, biology, physics and chemistry. The conclusions from performed studies have, together with economical interests, resulted in a market of electric wound healing products, such as the bioelec- tric dressing ProcelleraTM; a polyester dressing with zinc and silver dots. This thesis presents an investigation of the claimed wound healing abilities of this dressing. With voltage measurements, unite element modeling, determination of compounds and studies of bacterial growth, conclusions are drawn about the effectiveness of ProcelleraTM. The main conclusion of the project is that both voltage and antibacterial effects can be obtained from a dressing con- taining only zinc dots. Regarding the dressing's healing abilities, results from this study concludes that the chemical reactions in the dressing have a larger effect on the inhibition of bacterial growth rather than the electrical field in- duced by application of the dressing. This will improve wound healing due to reduced infection. Another conclusion drawn is that the direct currents from the dressing have no specific pain reducing effect.