Development of electrospun dressings for infected wounds

Chronic wounds show incomplete healing processes and expose patients to high risk of infection. These wounds are painful, debilitating and are estimated to affect almost 500,000 Australians. One major challenge associated to chronic wound management consists in limiting the bacterial load in the wound bed. A fibrous mesh capable of actively cleaning the wound from bacteria was designed by tuning fibre size and surface chemistry. Bacteria are attracted from the wound bed towards the fibres and they remain trapped within the fibrous network. The antibacterial action of a chemical coating deposed onto the fibres ensures that trapped bacteria are progressively killed.