New Scientist reveals a new kind of medical material created by MIT researcher Xuanhe Zhao- a sticky-on-one-side wound dressing that can treat gut injuries by sealing up wet, flexible gastrointestinal openings (from injuries or surgeries) like duct tape:
Zhao and his colleagues designed their dressing to work like duct tape, which is only sticky on one side. Once it covers the wound, it quickly forms a hydrogel, an adhesive layer that can help the wound to heal. The dressing is flexible too, so it can work on wounds with a complicated surface topology.
“The magic is that here you have something that is designed to work in these wet environments, but at the same time has these tissue-conformant features,” says Christoph Nabzdyk at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who helped test the patch in animals.
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You can read more about the new wound treatment here, in Science: Translational Medicine.