“Spray bandages” on the horizon

A portable device that can create a bandage and put it on a wound through air spray, has been developed by a group of researchers from Montana Technological University, US, and tested on a gloved human hand and a porcine skin incision. This new technology is based on a method called the electrospinning process, and the new device has a confined electric field that can “spray” drugs and bandages directly onto a biological surface. This spray-paint method allows the electrospinning device to not only cover the wound by facilitating the fibres to stick to the skin, but also to provide safe and effective controlled drug delivery.

Lane Huston, author of the paper, said: “In spray painting, pressurised gas forces direct particles toward a surface, creating a sort of deposited material. Like spray painting, the EStAD device is used by directing its nozzle at the desired surface during operation, causing a fibre mat to be deposited onto that surface.”