A team at the Wireless Bioelectronics lab at the national university of Singapore led by [Dr John Ho] revealed the results of their new Wireless Sensing (WiSe) wise sutures program last month. Their system consists of a specially prepared patch of polymer gel (the sensor) which is stitched into the wound utilizing a silk suture coated with a conductive polymer. An outside visitor scans the sensor to screen the condition of the wound.
The idea is not unlike a NFC public transportation card, although with simplified electronics. There is no microcontroller or digital data being transferred. Rather, the sensor behaves like a tuned tank. The gel on the sensor was created to degrade if the wound becomes infected, altering capacitance of the sensor structure as well as therefore shifting its resonant frequency.
If you’ve ever had the misfortune to experience surgery, no question the surgeon as well as nurses drove house the importance of diligent tracking of the wound for early indications of infection. These wise sutures enable detection of wound infection even before symptoms can seen or felt. They can be utilized on interior stitches as much as 50 mm inside the body. More details can be checked out in this paper, as well as we covered one more type of wise sensor back in 2016.