Electrical Stimulation Technologies for Wound Healing.
Objective:To discuss the physiological bases for using exogenously applied electric field (EF) energy to enhance wound healing with conductive electrical stimulation (ES) devices.Approach:To describe the types of electrical currents that have been reported to enhance chronic wound-healing rate and closure.Results:Commercial ES devices that generate direct current (DC), and mono and biphasic pulsed current waveforms represent the principal ES technologies which are reported to enhance wound healing.Innovation:Wafer-thin, disposable ES technologies (wound dressings) that utilize mini or micro-batteries to deliver low-level DC for wound healing and antibacterial wound-treatment purposes are commercially available. Microfluidic wound-healing chips are currently being used with greater accuracy to investigate the EF effects on cellular electrotaxis.Conclusion:Numerous clinical trials described in subsequent sections of this issue have demonstrated that ES used adjunctively with standard wound care (SWC), enhances wound healing rate faster than SWC alone.
Physical Therapy Department, College of Health Sciences, Marquette University , Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Luther C
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Kloth