Monitoring pH in wounds : The possibilities of textiles in healthcare

Sammanfattning: Wound care is a difficult process in the healthcare sector, especially the problem with chronic and infected wounds. There are a lot of patients suffering from these wounds and it is both painful and time consuming for nurses and patients. A wound on the verge of slowing down in the healing process has a shift in its pH value from acidic to neutral and alkaline. If healthcare staff could easily identify this change the chances of treating the wound in time increases, which could stop the developing of a chronic wound. This report aims to research the possibilities of textile materials that can respond to pH changes and be used in the healthcare sector as a wound dressing. If this becomes a reality, it can both reduce the number of patients suffering from infected and chronic wounds and facilitate the efficiency of healthcare workers' work. Through interviews and a selective reading into the subjects of: pH, chronic wounds and wound dressings, textile materials and healthcare requirements sketches and ideas were created on how to incorporate a pH indicator into a textile material and through this: into a wound dressing. What was found was that the technique of electrospun polyamide together with bromocresol purple (pH indicator) in the solution creates a highly suitable fiber for use in pH monitoring wound care. The fiber provides the possibility to construct a fabric, that have the application of detecting and changing color between the pH values in the range between 5.2-6.8, which is the critical pH range for healing wounds. Wound dressing that's interacting with healthcare staff and provides clues on how the wound is evolving could be the future of wound dressings. Not just to create the perfect environment for the wound but actively analyzing on how it is healing.