Australians develop ‘smart’ bandage

Australian researchers have developed a “smart” bandage that changes colour as a wound worsens or improves, potentially leading to the better treatment of ailments such as leg ulcers.

Lead inventor Louise van der Werff, a materials scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, said the dressing would change from red to blue depending on the temperature of the wound.

“If the wound becomes infected then it typically gets warmer. It would get cooler if there were, for example, a compromised blood supply,” she remarked.

Dr van der Werff said wound changes were not always obvious and the fibre she helped devise, using liquid crystals which react to different temperatures, could show changes of less than half a degree Celsius.