MIT Technology Review: A Cheap, Portable Wound-Healing Device

From the article:

"In mid-February, about a month after a massive earthquake leveled much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a wound-care team from Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston traveled to the devastated capital. The team's task was to help care for scores of patients suffering from the large open wounds that accompany amputations, crushed limbs, and other injuries. Among the team was MIT graduate student Danielle Zurovcik, who arrived ready to test a device she had developed as part of her thesis research--a cheap and portable version of the negative-pressure devices currently used to speed wound healing in hospitals.

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While scientists don't exactly know why this treatment accelerates the healing process, it likely helps by removing some of the fluid and bacteria that accumulates at the injury site and by increasing blood flow to the wound. The pressure itself may also help healing by bringing together the edges of the wound and delivering mechanical pressure, which has been shown to spur cell growth, says Dennis Orgill, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's who was not involved in the project.

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The team plans a larger test in Rwanda, where it will likely put the device to broader use. People in poor countries are much less likely to survive severe burns, for example, which can be helped with negative-pressure therapy. And the rate of complications from diabetes, such as foot ulcers, is skyrocketing in these countries as well, says Olson."