Infection, the most common complication of chronic wounds, has placed tremendous burden on patients and society. Existing care strategies could hardly reflect in situ wound status, resulting in overly aggressive or conservative therapeutic options. Multiplexed tracking of wound markers to obtain diagnostic information in a more accurate way is highly promising and in great demand for the emerging development of personalized medicine. Here, an integrated multiplex sensing bandage (MSB) system, including a multiplex sensor array (MSA), a corresponding flexible circuit, and a mobile application, was developed for real-time monitoring of sodium, potassium, calcium, pH, uric acid, and temperature indicators in the wound site to provide a quantitative diagnostic basis. The MSB was optimized for wound-oriented management applications, which exhibits a broad linear response, excellent selectivity, temporal stability, mechanical stability, reproducibility, and reliable signal transmission performance on the aforementioned physiological indicators. The results of in vivo experiments demonstrate that the MSA is capable of real-time monitoring of actual wounds as well as early prediction of infection. The results ultimately point to the potential clinical applicability of the MSB, which might benefit the quantifications of the complexity and diversity of the wound healing process. This work provides a unique strategy that holds promise for broad application in optimizing wound management and even coping with other diseases.
Keywords: electrochemical sensors; flexible electronics; multiplex sensor array; smart bandage; wearable device; wound monitoring.