Electrical impedance monitoring of the wound-healing process

The healing process was studied of five surgical wounds in sheep caused by the implantation of pacemaker electrodes in the vaginal or vulvar submucosa, while the electrodes were being used for impedometric measurements of the tissue surrounding them. Separate measurements of conductance (G) and capacitance (C) were carried out at frequencies ranging from 10 Hz to 100 kHz. The highest specific conductance at 100 kHz (mumho/cm) was observed on the 3rd postoperative day - 3095 +/- 172 SEM (n = 5), at which time the wound area was considerably swollen. Thereafter, the conductance gradually decreased and stabilized in 17-20 days at 2194 +/- 54 when the healing process was terminated. The decreasing impedance angle and tissue phase angle indicated that during the healing process cell volume decreased and cell density increased.