(Bio-)Sensors for skin grafts and skin flaps monitoring

Abstract

Skin grafting is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures in dermatology. Nevertheless, the failure rate is still quite high, which can cause a huge burden for patients and the health care system. Early interventions, like salvage surgery, can rescue the grafts that are going to fail. Therefore, real-time and objective monitoring of skin grafts and flaps is crucial to guide clinicians for an evidence-based treatment. This can be achieved by modern sensor applications using advanced techniques in nanotechnology and material science. This review provides an overview on current challenges for the further development of (bio-)sensors for monitoring the uptake of implanted skin grafts and skin flaps. Special interest has been given to invasive/non-invasive as well as wearable/implantable applications. In addition, the adaptation of recent developments in alternative sensing systems with physical, optical and electrochemical transducers for the continuous monitoring (intra- and post-operative) of skin transplants has been discussed.