Background to WMCS - The Technology
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The “Current of Injury”
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The human body has its own bioelectrical system controlling virtually all bodily functions.
Already in 1843 was a German physiologist, named Emil du Bois-Reymond, able to measure the presence of electrical current in wounded tissue. This discovery led several medical scientists to unravel the mystery behind the natural wound healing process in the human body, which became known as the Current of Injury. [1]
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This Current of Injury promotes wound healing by attracting the cells of repair, changing cell membrane permeability, enhancing cellular secretion through cell membranes and orienting cell structures. Studies have shown the presence of electrical potential in all these cells, which provoke them to migrate towards the wounded areas. This interaction is referred to as the concept of galvanotaxis. [2]
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Acute wounds in otherwise healthy patients have normal bioelectrical activity. Thus, healthy tissue is formed in a relatively short period of time. If the Current of Injury is not optimal, or has ceased completely, a delayed wound healing will occur. This situation is referred to as a Chronic Wound (typically a wound that has not healed with normal care for 3 months).
Electrical Stimulation (“ES”)
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The discovery of the Current of Injury eventually led to the development of new wound treatment devices, by which Electrical Stimulation (“ES”) was artificially applied to the wound in order to mimic the body’s natural healing process. The purpose being to accelerate the healing process, or in the case of Chronic Wounds, to “kick-start” the healing of an otherwise “hard-to-heal” wound.
Over the years, various modalities have been used, including low-intensity direct current (LIDC), low-intensity pulsed current (LIPDC) and high-voltage pulsed current (HVPC).
Common for all are that the electrical stimulation is applied by the use of a pair of electrodes, one of which is applied in (or sometimes in close proximity to) the wound bed while the other is placed on intact healthy skin nearby.
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The clinical results have been outstanding. ES is recognized as an efficient method for wound care in more than 500 published articles describing in vitro studies, animal experiments and clinical trials. The efficiency of ES for wound healing has achieved “Class 1A evidence”, the highest possible. As an evidence of this, the American College of Physicians, in their latest Clinical Guidelines recommends ES as the only efficient form of adjunctive therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers.
However, in spite of the indisputable scientific results, ES is not commonly used. The traditional modalities have a number of practical problems. The use of electrodes in, or in close proximity to, the wound bed is very painful for the patient and leads to high risk of infections. Skin irritation and allergies are also common side effects and due to the limited size of the treatment area for each session, treatment of a complete wound bed is often very time consuming.
Wireless Micro Current Stimulation (“WMCS”)
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Wireless Micro Current Stimulation (“WMCS”), a revolutionary new non-invasive modality for ES invented and patented by Wetling EU ApS in Denmark, overcomes all the practical problems experienced with traditional ES.
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With WMCS the electrical stimulation of a wound is administered “wirelessly”, without any physical contact to the damaged skin. The (low-intensity direct) current transferred “through the air” is typically around 1.5 μA.
To understand how WMCS works we need to bear in mind that the basis of an electrical current is “the movement of electrons”. The air around us consists predominantly of nitrogen and oxygen molecules. WMCS uses the ability of nitrogen and oxygen molecules to donate and absorb electrons respectively, a process similar to what we observe in nature when lightning occurs during thunderstorms. WMCS charges oxygen molecules gathered from the surrounding air with an extra electron (hence known as negative oxygen ions, or O2-), which then are “sprayed” down over the wound bed. When these ions touch the wound, the extra electrons “jump off” onto the wound surface and the basic O2 molecules just carry on in the air. In physics this is known as the “Plate Out” effect. To close the electrical loop, and to generate the desired continuous electrical current, a "return cable" (being the positively charged anode to which the electrons will migrate) is connected to the patient, anywhere where intact healthy skin is present (far away from the wound).
This makes WMCS treatment absolutely pain free and non-invasive, thus there are no risks for side effects. Furthermore the treatment area covered in one session is up to 50 times larger than with traditional ES.
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Though being a new technology, an increasing number of WMCS clinical trials and case studies are available in the public domain. These all show similar, or better, healing results compared to the studies made with “traditional” ES. At the same time, all risk factors, or disadvantages, with electrode transferred ES are neutralised.
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Not only are these practical trials showing similar or better results, but a scientific comparative calculation of the distribution of current and voltage to the tissue in traditional ES and WMCS (performed by the Danish Technical University, Institute of Physics) demonstrates that there are no qualitative differences in these electrical variables between the two modalities.[3]
Thus the abundance of clinical evidence available for traditional ES is equally applicable to WMCS!
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WMCS has proven efficiency, and regulatory medical device approvals, for the healing of;
• Diabetic Ulcers
• Pressure Ulcers
• Venous Ulcers
• Arterial Ulcers
• Other forms of Chronic Wounds
• Burns: 1st, 2nd & 3rd degree
• Surgical and other acute wounds
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The same technology can be used in a non-medical setting for aesthetic treatments.
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3. Mogens S. Jensen et al. Healing of Chronic wounds by Wireless Micro Current Stimulation. 24 November 2011
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