Flexible wearable sensors: An emerging platform for monitoring of bacterial infection in skin wounds

Abstract

Persistent inflammatory responses often occur when bacteria and other microorganisms frequently invade and colonize open wounds and eventually result in the formation of chronic wounds. Therefore, achieving real-time detection of invasive bacteria accurately and promptly is essential for efficient wound management and accelerating the healing process. Recently, flexible wearable sensors have garnered significant attention, especially those designed for monitoring real-time biophysical or biochemical signals in wound sites in a minimally invasive manner. They provide more precise and continuous monitoring data, making them as emerging tools for clinical diagnostics. In this review, we first discuss the species and community distribution of different types of bacteria in chronic wounds. Next, we introduce currently developed techniques for detecting bacteria at wound sites. Following that, we discuss the recent progress and unresolved issues of various flexible wearable sensors in detecting bacteria at wound sites. We believe that this review can provide meaningful guidance for the development of flexible wearable sensors for bacteria detection.