S. Soliman
Matregenix,
United States
Keywords: Point-of-care, battlefield wound injuries, handheld, nanofibers, antibacterial
Summary:
The treatment of 2nd and 3rd degree burns with skin grafting is a painful process that is not always immediately accessible, especially for combat medics in the field. Furthermore, when the human skin is wounded or destroyed, it loses its effectiveness as a protective barrier, making the tissues vulnerable to invasive bacterial infections. For the healing of burn wounds, it is crucial to maintain a sterile, moist environment, but the application of traditional wound healing dressings requires frequent changes which can disrupt the wounded areas and delay healing. In addition, delayed access to burn wound treatment and emergency surgery increases the likelihood of disfigurement, sepsis, delayed healing, and increased mortality. This presents a critical need for a technology that can serve as a viable alternative to postponed surgeries and frequent changes typically required in traditional wound healing dressings. Moreover, there is no FDA-approved portable device for wound dressing that can be used for emergency treatment. The lack of such a device is especially problematic in situations where access to timely emergency treatment is limited, such as in lower to middle-income communities across America or in situations where emergency room space, medical supplies, and hospital staff are in short supply, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there is a need to create a device that can be easily accessible in the field, can maintain a sterile and moist environment to promote healing, while preventing bacterial infections. Matregenix is developing SpinHeal, a lightweight, portable, and handheld wound dressing device that uses proprietary centrifugal Forcespinning™ technology to spray out webs of wound dressing onto the patient without any contact. The SpinHeal is designed to be used by combat medics and clinicians to treat wounds, offering a viable alternative to postponed surgeries without the need for frequent changes typically required in traditional wound healing dressings. The SpinHeal utilizes non-toxic, biocompatible polymers spun with highly efficacious antimicrobial additives to create complex force-spun, water-soluble structures that mimic natural soft tissue physiology on the nano and cellular scale. The device can deliver antibiotics and pain relief immediately upon activation, significantly reducing the number of grafting procedures required compared to traditional treatment. The SpinHeal has numerous benefits, including being transparent, gentle, breathable, contactless, pain-free, gauze-free, adhesive-free, and surgery-free. The device can cover the whole body, treat up to 1.9sq m or 100% of an average adult body surface area within a few minutes, and adhere well even in hard-to-dress contours. The SpinHeal is a paradigm shift in the way wounds are treated, providing a portable and contact-free painless wound dressing device that will significantly improve patient outcomes and revolutionize the way burn wounds are treated.