Flexible and temperature-responsive hydrogel dressing for real-time and remote wound healing monitoring

Wound management is highly clinically desirable due to the complexity and diversity of the wound repair process. However, it is still a major clinical challenge to develop a wound dressing with the capabilities of real-time and remote monitoring during wound healing. Herein, we have designed a polymer-based wound dressing in the form of a conductive, soft, temperature-responsive, antibacterial and biocompatible hydrogel, which is composed of polyacrylic acid (PAA)-grafted poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), vinyl-based polyacrylamide (PAM) and silver nanowires (AgNWs). In this hydrogel dressing, PAA-grafted PNIPAM acts as conformal interface and intrinsic temperature-responsive matrix, PAM helps to construct semi-penetrating polymer networks (SIPNs) to improve the mechanical properties, while the AgNWs introduce a three-dimensional conductive hydrogel network with antibacterial properties and sensing properties. The constructed hydrogel matrix was connected to a Bluetooth module to transmit the temperature changes wirelessly to a smart device. The design integrating a conductive hydrogel dressing with a wireless transmission module realized the real-time and wireless monitoring of the wound temperature, which is helpful to provide an early diagnosis of infection. This proof-of-concept study is highly promising in the development of new strategies to significantly improve wound management and other pathological diagnostics or treatments.