Novel Composite Antibiotic-Eluting Structures for Wound Healing Applications

There are various wounds with tissue loss. These include burn wounds, wounds caused as a result of trauma, diabetic ulcers and pressure sores. Every year in the United States more than 1.25 million people experience burns and 6.5 million experience various chronic skin ulcers. In burns, infection is the major complication after the initial period of shock and it is estimated that about 75% of the mortality following burn injuries is related to infections. Wound dressings aim to restore the milieu required for skin regeneration by protecting the wound from environmental threats, including penetration of bacteria, and by maintaining a moist healing environment. A wide variety of wound dressing products targeting various types of wounds and different aspects of the wound healing process are currently available on the market. Ideally, a dressing should be easy to apply and remove, and its design should meet both physical and mechanical requirements; namely water absorbance and transmission rate, handleability and strength. Although silver-eluting wound dressings are available for addressing the problem of infection, there is growing evidence of the deleterious effects of such dressings in delaying the healing process due to cellular toxicity. In this chapter wound dressings with controlled release of bioactive agents are discussed. Our novel biodegradable antibiotic-eluting wound dressings are described in details and the engineering aspects in the design are emphasized. The composite material which is based on a biodegradable fibrous polyglyconate mesh bonded with a porous Poly-(dl-lactic-co-glycolic acid) matrix, is designed to protect the wound until it is no longer needed, after which it dissolves away by chemical degradation into non-toxic products. These new composite wound dressings are advantageous in that they provide better protection against infection, enable faster wound healing and reduce the need for frequent dressing changing.