Wound care
clear enough if you examine the Accel-Heal Solo, with Martin noting that the “rate of risk of good clinical response” is about 80%. Not, of course, that electric stimulation is a panacea. As Martin continues, doctors can’t expect to abandon traditional treatment options – and should instead integrate machines like the Accel-Heal Solo into regular cleaning and debridement cycles. “Bioelectricity doesn’t outweigh all the other things,” he says. “But it’s just been an elephant in the room that we’ve been missing.”
Beyond the financial toll, chronic wounds exact a devastating human cost globally, with ulcers paving the way to 85% of limb amputations.
they’re hardly suited to cramped hospital wards, even less so for flying home visits.
12 Accel Heal
Four times
NCBI 36
Number of days needed for a Accel- Heal Solo treatment programme, lower than more traditional techniques.
How much more likely venous leg ulcers are to occur in patients over 80 than in their slightly younger cousins.
Bringing wounds to heal If you want to get a sense of how far electrical stimulation has come, you could do worse than buy an Accel-Heal Solo. Developed by a team in Kent, these electrode pads are little bigger than plasters – nor much more complicated. Applied to a wound much like a regular dressing, the current is supplied via a small plastic box. Turning on the machine is as simple as clicking the ‘start’ button, even as the system is sophisticated enough to monitor current flow, adjusting voltage as necessary. The few wires the Accel-Heal Solo does require can easily be wrapped around a patient’s body, ensuring they remain mobile during use. Not that treatment is needed for long: according to the device’s manufacturer, a 12-day treatment programme is enough to stimulate healing. Martin, who’s worked with Accel-Heal on developing their technology, is unsurprisingly excited about these developments. Unlike larger devices mounted on trolleys, he believes that disposable machines like the Accel-Heal Solo offer a “useful business model” for combating chronic wounds. Fair enough, particularly if you examine the sector more broadly. As work by Precision Business Insights found, the advanced wound care market is already worth more than $10bn, and is expected to enjoy CAGR of 6.6% through the end of the decade. That’s echoed by the success of specific companies. In France, for instance, WoundEL has developed a robust wound-healing platform weighing just 600g. Across the Channel, Natrox is a Cambridge manufacturer that’s won industry awards for its own electronic therapy work. This excitement isn’t hard to understand. As a stroke, these bijou technologies promise to put treatment into the hands of patients themselves, even as alleviation is abandoned for cures. That’s
Old age problems At City, Triantis and Rabbani stress difficulties around understanding exactly how electrobiomodulation therapy works. Fortunately, doctors are now convinced of its potential. But with so many variables at play – from the location of the wound and the type of tissue involved to electrical parameters and where electrodes are placed – Triantis says particular set-ups can have a “very specific effect.” Once you factor in different types of wounds, from pressure ulcers to abrasions, it can be achievable to create a platform flexible enough to work across healthcare. That’s obvious even for successful applications. The Accel- Heal Solo may help cure some 80% of wounds, but Martin admits that “we’re not really sure why the 20% don’t give such a good response”.
How can these hurdles be overcome? One option is to not merely envisage medical devices as a machine – but appreciate they’ll be used by flesh-and-blood patients. As Rabbani puts it: “That’s why you always need a biologist on board when you’re designing medical devices.” Notwithstanding the relative adaptability of platforms like the Accel-Heal Solo, designed to combat pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers and more, another option involves building electrical therapy around specific wound types. Dr Michael Powner, the other co-lead of the 3T Group, gives the example of venous ulcers. “These are one kind of ulcer, a wound, that we can target. Finding the parameters for one type of ulcer is then a starting point to treat other ulcer types,” he says, adding all injuries of this sort primarily affect the epithelial cells, and the tissue just below, on the surface of the body. What’s not in doubt, is that demand for such treatments will rise. Demographically, it’s a near certainty, with data in the UK’s General Practice Research Database showing venous leg ulcers are as much as four times more likely to form in patients over 80 than slightly younger cousins. No wonder insiders expect the market for dynamic electrical stimulation to grow. “I think it’s very important,” says Martin, “to evaluate newer technologies that can be applied at relatively low cost to patients in their own homes – without needing specialist intervention.” Considering both the need for effective chronic wound treatment, and the potential of electrical stimulation as a solution, it’s hard to disagree.
Practical Patient Care /
www.practical-patient-care.com
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Shutterstock.com
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