Antimicrobial Smart Dressings for Combating Antibiotic Resistance in Wound Care

Wound healing is a complex, tightly regulated process essential for maintaining skin barrier function. Chronic wounds, often complicated by biofilm-forming bacteria and elevated oxidative stress, pose significant challenges in clinical management. The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has further exacerbated the problem, limiting therapeutic options and complicating wound treatment. Traditional wound care approaches frequently fail to provide real-time accurate insights into wound status, leading to delayed or suboptimal treatments. Recent advancements in modern and smart wound dressings, which integrate various biosensors, different new drug delivery systems, and wireless communication technology, offers promising solutions for monitoring wound progression over time. These innovations enable early detection of adverse events such as bacterial infections and inflammation, facilitating more effective, on-demand treatment. This review highlights the current state of antibiotic-embedded wound dressings, discusses their limitations, and explores the potential of next-generation wound dressings incorporating microelectronic sensors for real-time monitoring and adaptive therapeutic responses to support healing and combat antimicrobial resistance.