Multifunctional conductive dressings for wound healing support

Chronic and non-healing wounds, characterised by persistent inflammation, recurrent infections and impaired angiogenesis, remain a significant clinical and socioeconomic burden. Conductive polymers (CPs) have emerged as promising materials for actively accelerating wound repair owing to their unique combination of electroactivity, redox activity and tunable physiochemistry. This review highlights recent advances in the use of CPs, such as polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PANI) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), for chronic wound management, by means of electrical stimulation therapy, electrochemically controlled therapeutic delivery and wound monitoring. CP-based wound dressings have demonstrated significant potential to promote tissue regeneration, modulate inflammation, improve infection control and reduce pathological scarring in chronic wounds. In this review, chemical and electrochemical synthesis of CPs and processing methods for CP-based wound dressings are outlined, before focusing on CP-based, on-demand drug delivery systems and electrical stimulation for wound healing. Emphasis is then placed on multifunctional systems for enhanced therapeutic efficacy. We also briefly outline the recent progress toward the transition from externally programmed electrical stimulation to self-powered integrated systems. Finally, we discuss current challenges in developing CP-based wound dressings, such as long-term stability, multifunctionality and clinical translation, and outline future directions toward intelligent, personalised wound-care systems based on CP-based wound dressings.