Screen-printed silicone-compression garment composite for hypertrophic scar treatment

Abstract

Pressure garment treatment (PGT) and silicone gel sheeting (SGS) represent major first-line non-invasive methods for scar healing, each with its own set of advantages and drawbacks. Pressure garments therapy and silicone dressings lack occlusive characteristics and moisture balance. Challenges of non-invasive modalities integration exist in the drawbacks of silicone non-breathability, high tension, and low mechanical properties. Prolonged scar maturation to a decade and the lack of an up-to-date optimum treatment method demand multi-functional composites with compression-silicone dual therapy. The development of PGF-Biopor®AB addresses these challenges by offering multi-therapeutic benefits, including pressure garment treatment-silicone gel sheeting (PGT-SGS) dual therapy, mechanotherapy, and active moisture management while ensuring dressing performance improvement in uniform adherence and trauma-free dressing removal. A self-pumping dressing in PGF-Biopor®AB features a microchannel structure of nylon absorbency and active compression, the fabrication of controlling viscosity, textile structure, and precise deposition for Biopor®AB solves challenges with multiple therapeutic effects. This study establishes a clear framework from self-pumping composite design to performance evaluation. For fabrication, the use of pre-strained screen printing with biaxial tensioning creates a "warp insertions" mobility design. The pressure-driven "warp insertions" shifting and Biopor®AB viscoelasticity demonstrate self-pumping to enable compression, mechanotherapy, and pressure redistribution. The Biopor®AB-exposure by PGF-embedding facilitates SGS therapy and achieves uniform adherence and trauma-free dressing removal. The construction of screen-mark microchannels and a “ spiral-through-the-thickness” structure creates an asymmetric 3D channel structure and builds effective unidirectional transport pathways that solve the problem of silicone non-breathability. Under the operation of self-pumping, the Biopor®AB-nylon material characteristics provide an engine of active transport. The pressure-driven active nylon absorbency in the warp insertion mobility design enhances water uptake and enhances water vapour transmission rate for active moisture management. The textile-reinforcement composite making structurally enhances the mechanical properties (tensile and shear), and the biaxial-tensioning introduces stress-strain variations for their tunability, enabling mechanotherapy. In property-performance evaluation, this PGF-inlaid with “warp insertions” mobility demonstrates compression therapy and eliminates the drawback of high tension and low water permeability. The realization of multiple therapeutic performances in PGT-SGS dual therapy, mechanotherapy and dynamic active moisture management made it a functional all-in-one scar-healing dressing. The integration of PGF and Biopor®AB in a composite achieves PGT-SGS dual therapy, mechanotherapy, and active moisture management for all-in-one scar therapeutics. In contrast to the water permeability of commercial SGS dressing Cica-Care© (12.75 g/m2 per day), PGF-Biopor®AB reveals promising improvements in water uptake (13%) and close-to-skin (223.33 g/m2 per day) water permeability, meeting the scar therapeutic requirements of active moisture management. In the scar-healing performance assessments of cytotoxicity and patient studies, PGF-Biopor®AB demonstrates over 70% cell viability in 3-day sustainability for its continuous safety use, and the 7-day healing of a non-healed wound and one-month efficacy in scarring tissues, all support the multi-therapeutic roles of an ideal scar-healing dressing. Although this work displays a scar-healing dressing material with multiple therapeutics, including compression-silicone dual therapy, active moisture management, and mechanotherapy, it has certain limitations. One such limitation is the formulation restriction of Biopor®AB, necessitating further exploration for lower viscosity options or upscale manufacturing with industrial Octopus printing machines. Note: This is the final version submitted by the graduate with approval.