Spray-on nanofiber 'skin' may revolutionize wound care | Hacker News Reader

Spray-on nanofiber 'skin' may revolutionize wound care

fastcompany.com

88 pointswalterbell22 comments

I love it !

There are some great scams in the wound healing market.

https://www.polarityte.com/products/skinTE-providers is another great example.

"PolarityTE's Many Deceptions Sep. 11, 2018 8:32 AM ET|Includes: PolarityTE, Inc. (PTE) Summary PolarityTE is a biotech company claiming to have its own patented regenerative medicine platform which is capable of regenerating ten different tissue types.

Its financiers and some of its ex-officers are notorious pump-and-dump scammers who were recently sued by the SEC.

In this report we detail a number statements by management which range from things unlikely to be to true, to outright lies and securities fraud.

We back up everything with extensive evidence and research.

We do not believe the company is trustworthy, especially given the extraordinary claims they make about their product pipeline and their unwillingness to answer questions."

https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/49608862-research-noir/52...

Well, it does sound wonderful. Could be bollocks, though.

There is spray collodion aka nitrocellulose. It's just old-school molecules, though.

I love Band-Air Hydro Seal (hydrocolloid) bandages and 3M Tegaderm film. They work far better than absorbent bandages.

I once stuck a finger in a running high-speed axial fan. Maybe 2-3 mm got shredded. So I just wrapped the fingertip with hydrocolloid bandages, and forgot about it. Maybe two weeks later, it had completely healed, with no scar.

Do you still feel touch the way you used to?

Yes, totally.

It wasn't that much, really. And very little flesh was actually missing. Just cut in ragged ways. So I just trimmed off the shattered nail, washed with warm water, and then peroxide. After patting dry with sterile gauze, I applied two small hydroseal bandages. First around the dorsal (nail) side, and then around the ventral side, with a little overlap. I used a small Skin-Flex bandage, with the gauze pad removed, to prevent the hydroseal bandages from coming off. And used methyl methacrylate to glue the end of the outer bandage.

Okay - this would be incredible for so many reasons, but if it exists today and is in use in hospitals, why not show footage instead of Tim & Eric-style marketing fluff?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Don't get me wrong: I want this to exist, yesterday. But can we see a bit more live use, please?

Agreed. There is no footage of actual skin, just too much focus on the device itself and at 00:01:06 to make things weird, they declare it as "transparent skin". I suspect it is in testing probably and will need more trials on actual humans first or something.

MD here: perhaps as an alternative to outpatient wounds but we've been using glue for 10+ years now. It works when you have a clean wound but often you need to reconstruct messy wounds and then glue doesn't get the job done. You need to be able to pull the skin and with glue you will just end up gluing your glove onto the wound (yup, personal experience).

In the operating theater I don't really see it happening. We've been discussing using glue there but then you need an additional layer of sutures which usually take longer to do (intracutaneous). Anything that takes time in the threatre is usually a deal breaker.

There are probably use cases outside my field but even for burns I'm uncertain if it is a good fit. Most wounds are not sterile and encapsulating bacteria under a layer of fiber seems like a recipe for pushing the bacteria deeper and generating a more severe infection.

I didn't see anything in the article about whether the surface is breathable. Assuming it is not, then how wells does skin regrow under a sealed layer?

Probably fine. We often have blisters where there is an intact surface protecting the new skin. The big difference is that an intact blister is sterile by nature while most other wounds will always have some contamination.

Are there gloves that are that don’t stick to glue? Seems perfectly possibly to me.

Probably, but it is probably not that cost motivated. Also, you quickly learn how to avoid that particular problem.

10+ years? Hm.. super glue has been used by hikers to treat wounds for as long as I can remember (20+?)

I wonder if this is a case of necessity inventing it and medical practice following

Yeah, I remember some spray version when I was a kid. The 10+ is how long I think it has been present at my particular hospital.

The interesting thing is that it hasn't really caught on. We don't have any financial pressure or other external factors, it is really convenient, yet I'm pretty sure that only 10-20% of the doctors use it.

Is it safe? When I hear nanofibers, I think of previous articles I read comparing nanofibers/nanotubes with asbestos. So however handy it seems I'd rather avoid it until there are data on its long-term health effects. I don't want it on my wound. I don't want to be nearby potentially breathing in the spray. I definitely don't want to be the health care professional repeatedly exposed to it.

Not the exact articles I read, but a similar theme:

https://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/articles/are-car...

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/carbon-nanofibres-linked-...

It might be structurally similar to asbestos fibrils but asbestos is directly carcinogenic. Carbon microstructures probably aren't (unless it's carrying something that is).

It might still donk your lungs up if it can't be absorbed. Functional inflammation, COPD if you inhale a lot. Abrasive cancers in long term, repeated exposure.

Aerosolising it seems, I agree, far too risky. A sheet or liquid alcohol-evaporative application makes more sense.

What happened with the 2012 "spray on skin" treatment?[1]

[1] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/spray-skin-cells-heal...

I don't think it is, but sounds similar to Avita Medical (AVH.ASX) and AVMXY. Their recell product has great results for burns, Vitiligo and diabetic skin lesions.

Avita have been at it for quite a while and are now in 28 America Burn Association Burn centers and look like they are increasing that number significantly this year.

Strong patent portfolio, focused on skins and a couple of other indications at the moment.

Disclosure, I am an investor.

Their lead researcher is really fun to listen to. I have a lot of respect for her https://www.youtube.com/embed/ujqxB-I2rdM

The company is this one https://avitamedical.com/about-recell

Decent overview here - from what they presented at this year's American Burn Association conference https://www.marketscreener.com/AVITA-MEDICAL-LTD-8777378/new...

Smells more of marketing than anything else.

This reads like it was written by their PR firm, light on details and high on marketing fluff and hype. Most of the author’s lastest articles look like fed submarines to me.

Why does the video at 0:36 mention cannabis?

Is it a painkiller? Does this thing double as a bong?

Cannabis is an analgesic.

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