Responsive hydrogel dressings for intelligent wound management

Due to global aging problems, the rising number of patients suffering from chronic or hard-to-heal acute wounds imposes a significant burden on healthcare systems. Wound healing is a complicated and dynamic physiological process with distinct molecular and cellular levels at each phase. Despite numerous strategies and advanced wound dressings being developed, successful wound management through smart dressing materials that can adapt to changing wound microenvironments and address the needs of wounds at different stages remains a big challenge. Over the last decade, hydrogel-based dressings have emerged as one of the most potent biomaterials for wound treatment with favorable biological characteristics and a high potential for active intervention during the wound-curing process. In the current contribution, we present the most recent progress in smart hydrogel dressings that can regulate the release of therapeutics in response to external stimuli (such as light) as well as endogenous changes in wound environments (e.g., temperature, pH, glucose, and reactive oxygen species) to facilitate wound healing. We also introduce the cutting-edge technologies of intelligent “sense-and-treat” dressings through a combination of built-in sensors or sensing molecules with responsive hydrogels, which enable real-time monitoring of wound conditions and prompt on-demand therapy.