New Treatment For Bedsores

Hat tip to Israel Matzav

Bedsores, also known as Pressure sores, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of your body, especially the skin on your buttocks, hips and heels. Without adequate blood flow, the affected tissue dies.

Although people living with paralysis are especially at risk, anyone who is bedridden, uses a wheelchair or is unable to change positions without help can develop bedsores.

Bedsores can develop quickly, progress rapidly and are often difficult to heal. Yet health experts say many of these wounds don't have to occur. Key preventive measures can maintain the skin's integrity and encourage healing of bedsores.

Standard treatments aren't usually effective and do little to alleviate the suffering to the patient. Until now.

From Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology comes this breakthrough:

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a unique device, called Dermastream, which could heal bedsores and chronic ulcers
in bedridden elderly and infirm.

"The problem is chronic," said Prof. Amihay Freeman of TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology.

And thus, he developed Dermastream, that uses a solution to whisk away dead tissue, bathing the wound while keeping dangerous bacteria away.

The device provides an enzyme-based solution that flows continuously over the wound, offering an alternative treatment to combat a problem for which current treatments are costly and labour-intensive.

Freeman said that Dermastream has already passed clinical trials in Israeli hospitals and may be available in the U.S. within the next year.

Dermastream employs a special solution developed at Freeman's TAU laboratory, thus offering a new approach to chronic wound care- a specialty known as "continuous streaming therapy."

"Our basic idea is simple. We treat the wound by streaming a solution in a continuous manner. Traditional methods require wound scraping to remove necrotic tissue. That is expensive, painful and extremely uncomfortable to the patient. And while active ingredients applied with bandages on a wound may work for a couple of hours, after that the wound fights back. The bacteria build up again, creating a tedious and long battle," said Freeman.

Dermastream "flows" under a plastic cover that seals the wound, providing negative pressure that promotes faster healing.

The active biological ingredient, delivered in a hypertonic medium, works to heal hard-to-shake chronic wounds.

Freeman said that while traditional bandaging methods may take months to become fully effective, Dermastream can heal chronic wounds in weeks.

Dermastream is intended for use in hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics and homecare.

Freeman has founded a company that is currently collaborating with a Veterans Association hospital in Tucson, AZ, to bring the technology to the U.S. market.

Another useful Medical Advance from the 100th smallest nation on the planet.