In Vivo Actuation System for Mechanostimulation of Large Wound Healing

The incidence of large open wounds in the US is estimated to be about 5–7 million per year which results in a cost of greater than $20 billion for wound management [1]. Large open wounds occur due to burns, trauma, and secondary to surgical interventions, ulcers or pressure sores. The current clinical practice is to treat large open wounds by delayed primary closure where skin is stretched under constant tension to approximate wound edges by relying on the extensibility of the neighboring skin, by skin grafting or by managing the wound to heal by second intention. Delayed primary closure is inapplicable when the strength of the skin is compromised (e.g. age, diabetes). Furthermore, delayed primary closure usually leads to excessive wound tension which introduces hypertrophic scars [2] and ischemia [3] to the skin and the underlying muscles. Skin autografts may result in morbidity of the donor site. Therefore, there is the need for noninvasive methods which will enable large wound closure in a reasonable time frame with minimal scar formation while alleviating or reducing the need for skin graft harvest.