Hydrogels for management of chronic wound healing

Chronic wounds occur when one wound healing process or a sequence of wound healing events are affected resulting in slow healing of the wound thereby placing the patient in deep pain. Various diseases and conditions can delay the process of wound healing. Wound healing can be classified into four main stages: hemostasis, inflammation, remodeling, and scar tissue formation with each phase overlapping one another. The skin is the largest organ in the body. It protects the entire external surface of the human body and is the primary site of interaction with the outside environment. There is therefore a need to fabricate an ideal dressing through scientific research and investigations.

Hydrogels are a three-dimensional network of hydrophilic polymers that can swell in water and absorb copious amounts of water while maintaining their structure because of their chemical or physical crosslinking of individual polymer chains. A hydrogel must be composed of at least 10% water. Hydrogels possess the flexibility and water percentage which is remarkably like tissues. They are biocompatible and biodegradable which makes them ideal for dermal wound healing.