MIT News Office (October 29, 2012) — Ripping off a Band-Aid may sting for a few seconds, but the pain is
usually quickly forgotten. However, for newborns’ sensitive skin,
tearing off any kind of adhesive can pose a serious risk.
Newborns
lack an epidermis — the tough outermost layer of skin — so medical tape
used to secure respirators or monitoring devices critical for the
survival of premature babies can wreak havoc: Every year, more than 1.5
million people suffer scarring and skin irritation from medical tape,
and the majority of those are infants or elderly people, who also have
fragile skin.
“This is just a huge unmet need,” says Jeffrey
Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and
co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital.
Bryan Laulicht, a postdoc in MIT’s Institute
for Medical Engineering and Science, and MIT Institute Professor Robert
Langer have now joined Karp in developing a new type of medical tape
that can be removed without damaging delicate skin. The new tape could
be produced by adapting current adhesive-manufacturing systems,
according to the researchers.
Although originally designed for
infants, the tape could also be useful for elderly patients. The new
adhesive is described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers have filed for a patent on the new tape and are now
working to secure regulatory approval for safety tests on human adults.
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