Summary

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 28876
Story Slug BIOLOGICAL BANDAGES VNR (12/04/1996)
Location None
Format Pkg W/Tag
Date 12/4/1996
Archive Time 52:12
TRT 2:19
Supers :10 Dave Narosny, Reporting :35 Dr. Richard Eckert, Case Western Reserve University 1:39 Irwin Schafer, M.D., CWRU Professor of Medicine
Video Description Doctor wrapping person's arm with bandage, cu of new type of bandage, lab worker using dropper, graphic of bandage diagram, lab workers pass a petrie dish, Eckert SOT, doctor looking through microscope, cu of placing petrie dish under microscope, cu of hand holding bandage next to patient's arm, Schafer SOT, doctor wrapping bandage on arm, cu of bandage.
Script LEAD: One of the oldest weapons in the physician's arsenal, the simple, common bandage, is about to go high-tech. Dave Narosy has all the details. (Take Pkg) SCRIPT: The common bandage is about to take a high-tech turn with the advent of the genetically engineered biological bandage. The bandage will deliver genetically engineered cells that reinforce and speed the body's own healing process. The cells are released from a polymer envelope within the bandage and penetrate to the wound site. Doctor Richard Eckert of Case Western reserve University's Skin Diseases Research Center helped create the high-tech bandage. (Eckert SOT: "The idea is that, if you have a patient who has a pressure sore, or a patient who has a diabetic ulcer, that you could place this material, this bandage system into the wound area, have it release this growth factor, accelerate or model the healing in any way that you wish, depending on the factor that you produce and facilitate healing for that patient. Our aim is to - in patients that have very slow healing or no healing - these patients are susceptible to infection and other kinds of problems, we'd like to be able to put this bandage on to the wound and actually close these unhealing wounds that do not close.") Doctors Richard Fratianne and Irwin Schafer are testing a prototype of the bandage at the Cleveland MetroHealth Medical Center Burn Unit. Their bandage uses normal healing agents because the Food and Drug Administration still must approve genetically engineered cells for clinical trials. Doctor Schafer says the bandage will be especially useful when treating the elderly. (Schafer SOT: "We are particularly interested in trying to develop some kind of a bandage - or an effective bandage - to treat chronic wounds in elderly people. And that's a very big problem. As people get older, when they develop a leg ulcer oror a pressure ulcer, these can last...persist for a very long time. They don't heal. And we're hopeful that by scientifically trying to approach this problem, we may be able to come up with something that will be helpful.") Researchers say the bandage will probably receive widespread use in the hospital setting in the not-too-distant future. This is Dave Narosny reporting from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.
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