A team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic and Washington State University has developed hydrogen peroxide-producing bandages featuring electrical/chemical properties controlled via wearable voltage devices as an alternative to antibiotics for treating chronic wound infections.

According to its developers, the electro-chemical bandages, otherwise known as e-bandages, produce hydrogen peroxide, which is commonly used to treat wounds.

Alone, hydrogen peroxide is chemically unstable and, consequently, its effect on treating wounds is short-lived. Yet, the e-bandage constantly produces hydrogen peroxide for treating chronic wounds that fail to heal and that demonstrate the potential for bacterial resistance.

In the lab, the researchers demonstrated that e-bandages placed on lab mice with wounds infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) reduced the wound’s bacterial biofilm population by 99%.

The team presented their findings at ASM Microbe 2022, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology