Electric Band-Aids

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                                   May 15, 1992

                                    BANDAID.ASC
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               This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Mike Vest.
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       Electric Band-Aids
       Omni, Unknown date (1983-1986 range, probably)

       Electricity speeds up the rate at which broken bones knit.  But what
       would happen if you electrified a skin wound?  That's the question
       biochemist Oscar M. Alvarez and colleagues at the University of
       Pittsburgh Medical School  asked themselves recently.  The answer: a
       30 percent reduction in healing time.

       The new procedure involves dipping  a  nylon  cloth in silver, which
       acts as an electrical conductant.  The cloth is then  connected to a
       battery, energized with  a  tiny electric current, and placed on the
       wound.

       The Pittsburgh group treated minor surface abrasions on the skin of
       several domestic pigs, and the results  found  that  the electrified
       wounds healed in an average of 2.9 days.

       This compared with 4.1 days for wounds treated with the silver cloth
       but without electricity, and 4.6 days for those wounds  left open to
       the air.

       According to Alvarez,  tests  indicate  that  both  silver  AND  the
       electricity are responsible for the  rapid  healing.   "It  is fairly
       apparent," he explains,   "that   the   electrical-silver    complex
       stimulates cells from  surrounding  tissue to aggregate at the wound
       site, increasing protein  production   and   enhancing  the  healing
       process."

       Manufactured by the  Sybron  Corporation, the silver-coated  bandage
       has recently been  classified  as a drug (of course.. has as much to
       do with drugs as, say, vitamins..).

       Approval by the Food and Drug Administration  should  follow  on the
       heels of human  tests,  now being conducted by Dr.  James  Albright,
       chief of orthopedic  surgery  for  the  St. Louis Medical Center, in
       Shreveport, Louisiana.  If all goes  well,  you'll find the bandages
       on your pharmacy shelf in a few years.  (Damn, I  can't  find  them,
       and its been a few years...) -Rick Boling
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