IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2024;17:264-279. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2022.3210598. Epub 2024 Jan 12.
Ulcers and chronic wounds are a large and expensive problem, costing billions of pounds a year and affecting millions of people. Electrical stimulation has been known to have a positive effect on wound healing since the 1960s and this has been confirmed in numerous studies, reducing the time to heal, and the incidence of adverse events such as infections. However, because each study used different parameters for the treatment, inclusion criteria and metrics for quantifying the success, it is currently hard to combine them statistically and gain a true picture of its efficacy. As such, electrical stimulation has not been universally adopted as a recommended treatment for various types of wound. This paper summarises the biological basis for electrical simulation treatment and reviews the clinical evidence for its effectiveness. Notable is the lack of research focused on the electrodes used to deliver electrostimulation treatment. However, a significant amount of work has been conducted on electrodes for other medical applications in the field of e-textiles. This e-textile work is reviewed with a focus on its potential in electrostimulation and proposals are made for future developments to improve future studies and applications for wound healing via electrical stimulation.
溃疡和慢性伤口是一个庞大且昂贵的问题，每年耗费数十亿英镑，影响数百万人。自 20 世纪 60 年代以来，人们已经知道电刺激对伤口愈合有积极影响，这在许多研究中得到了证实，它可以减少愈合时间，并降低感染等不良事件的发生率。然而，由于每项研究对治疗、纳入标准和成功量化的指标都使用了不同的参数，因此目前很难对其进行统计学上的组合，以了解其真正的疗效。因此，电刺激尚未被普遍采用为各种类型伤口的推荐治疗方法。本文总结了电模拟治疗的生物学基础，并回顾了其有效性的临床证据。值得注意的是，针对用于提供电刺激治疗的电极的研究很少。然而，在电子纺织品领域，针对其他医疗应用的电极已经进行了大量的工作。本文对电子纺织品方面的工作进行了回顾，重点介绍了其在电刺激方面的潜力，并为未来的发展提出了建议，以改善通过电刺激进行伤口愈合的未来研究和应用。
