Spider-Man-style medical gun spins out 'skin substitute' for burns

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/04/spider-man-style-medical-gun-spins-out-skin-substitute-for-burns

Spider-Man-style medical gun spins out 'skin substitute' for burns

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
Mon 4 Jan 2021 07.57 GMT

Doctors in Europe, India and Israel have begun using a medical gun that spins out a protective web to cover burns and wounds, hoping the breathable “skin substitute” will help patients recover without the need for painful bandage changes.

Nanomedic, the Israeli company that designed the Spincare system, claims its device gives patients increased mobility – often essential for burn rehabilitation – and the ability to shower, a process that can be difficult with traditional bandages. The translucent layer it produces allows medics to examine the wound without touching it, the firm says.
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Electrospinning, the technique the device employs, involves using electricity to create nano-fibres from a solution, and has been in use for years, including in the medical field. Nanomedic says its device, however, is much smaller than the large electrospinning machines previously available, meaning it can be carried to a patient’s bedside.

Gary J Sagiv, the company’s vice-president for marketing and sales, said one hospital in Germany had used the product for facial wounds, where large bandages could be burdensome. Others, he said, had applied it to wounds on people with diabetes, who can develop chronic foot sores that can lead to amputation.

Unwilling to provide a price, which he said differed depending on which country it was sold in, Sagiv claimed Spincare was cost-effective for hospitals compared with other advanced wound care bandages.

Baljit Dheansa, a doctor in the UK who specialises in burns and scarring, said he had used Spincare on five patients at Queen Victoria hospital in Sussex, with positive results on superficial burns. “You have this fine whitish thing on that’s fairly robust and seems to cope with most things,” he said.

With deep burns, it was less effective, he said, but clarified that Nanomedic had not claimed Spincare would be useful for deep burns.
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