Katharina Buczek
This quick feedback response is possible through the smart sutures radio-frequency identification tag– or RFID.
And a massive benefit of this revolutionary smart suture is that it does not require any significant surgical procedure modifications. Doctors simply stitch up a wound as usual while threading through the electronic module to use the device.
While using this smart suture in trials, the researchers proved that this suture healed naturally without any significant variations from standard medical-grade sutures.
And, the polymer coating, as well as the energy levels necessary to use the device, were both deemed safe for humans.
Professor Ho is very hopeful that his team’s smart sutures will change post-operative care outcomes.
He said, “Currently, postoperative complications are often not detected until the patient experiences systemic symptoms like pain, fever, or a high heart rate. These smart sutures can be used as an early alert tool to enable doctors to intervene before the complication becomes life-threatening. This can lead to lower re-operation rates, faster recovery, and improved patient outcomes.”
Now, the team is continuing to develop more versions of this smart suture. Their next goal is to help patients lessen their length of stay at hospitals and provide them the opportunity to be discharged sooner.
Additional plans include detecting leakage and wound bleeding following gastrointestinal surgery and monitoring organs deeper in the body.
If this groundbreaking suture technology becomes standard in the medical field, wound complications and infections may very well become a “thing of the past.”
To read the complete scientific study, visit the link here.
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