Page 15 - TORCH Magazine #13 - April 2019

Amazing medical breakthrough will help heal burn victims with “second skin”
Israel has gifted the world with some incredible medical advancements over the years. One of the latest
to be announced is a “spray-on skin” that will help treat burns and wounds quickly and without pain.
Resembling a large glue gun, the SpinCare device gently sprays a transparent, skin-like polymer dressing onto the burn from 20 cm away.
The dressing then peels off naturally as soon as the skin under it has healed. This innovative treatment avoids the need to repeatedly apply dressings, which is unbearably painful for burn victims, as medics can examine the condition of the wound without removing or even touching the patient. There is also a reduced risk of infections and the healing process is quicker. It is also waterproof, so patients can start taking showers one to
two days after treatment without any need to remove or take off a traditional dressing.
"By covering his wound we reduce the pain, we enhance the healing and we even, by its characteristics, we mimic totally the top layer of the skin, temporarily, so it can cover it until the body heals on its own," said Professor Josef Haik who has served as consultant to the company which developed SpinCare. He called it "a kind of a science fiction".
According to developers NanoMedic, which is located near Tel Aviv, the device also has the potential to treat surgical wounds, large opened and partial deep wounds as well as
dermal diseases.
The product was originally developed for
hospitals and points of care, but its use can be extended to emergency situations, becoming part of ambulance or fire-fighting kits, or even war zones.
Nine of the devices have been distributed free of charge in hospitals in Israel and Europe, where SpinCare has received regulatory approval. The device is set for commercial market release later this year and is expected to be cheaper than other advanced dressings in the market.
Israeli scientists create 3D-printed heart
Meanwhile, scientists at Tel Aviv University have unveiled a 3D print of a heart with human tissue and vessels, which they say advances possibilities for transplants.
While it remains a far way off, scientists hope one day to be able to produce hearts suitable for transplant into humans as well as patches to regenerate defective hearts.
It marked “the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Tal Dvir, who led the project.
“People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels,” he said, describing the development as a “major medical breakthrough”.
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