Whoever doesn’t want to live a better and happy life? But unfortunately, this happiness doesn’t go to all. People face many problems from different angles. Those people who are living a life with the curse for Burn Face can understand the pain. They might be perfect from all sides and fit to anywhere, just because of their burn face, they don’t get the exact attention from people and treated differently. I’m quite sure, those people who have burn face, no matter how it burnt, wish to get back their original face as it was before burning. Thanks to Military Bio-mask. Now, there is a chance to retrieve your burn face to previous one.
Most of the time, soldiers who go to war often come back with burned limbs. Every burning treatment is so painful. If he/she gets a second or third degree burns, and unfortunately if it is imprinted on face, then he/she gets no limit for sufferings. Right now the Military has made a solution of it, but they are not sure, how far it will be effective. The Military targets to implement it in 2017.
When a soldier will be back with burn face from war, then he/she will be given a Mask. This mask, he/she to wear for several months (if he/she wants to get back his/her original face). This mask is not an ordinary mask. It will be layered with sensors, actuators and a regenerative elixir. Stem cells will be also included in the mask in order to regrow missing facial tissue.
But at current, when soldiers(85%) return with burn face, lots of things are done to return them their original faces. The wounded soldiers are given regenerative medicines. Wounded soldiers undergo dozens of surgeries to repair damage. Skin grafts often don’t take and need to be removed. Even if the grafting works, it’s routinely accompanied by deformities, scarring, speech impediments and a loss of facial function.Fresh muscle tissues are being built from pig cells and to repair damaged flesh a spray is being given on then burned skin. Those soldiers who have broken bones are taken special care of.
In fact, if Bio-mask works perfectly, then it would be the best one for the burned soldiers and other people. In order to make this dream in realistic, the engineers at UT Arlington, regenerative medicine specialists at Northwestern University, and experts from the Brooke Army Medical Center and the Army Institute of Surgical Research are working hard and soul. Right now, the mask is in primary stages of development. In fact, Eileen Moss, a research scientist at UT Arlington and the project’s leader said, “the team has already got a good sense of how it’ll look and work”. Most importantly, Moss said that, the mask would “give soldiers back the face they had before the injury.”
Glimpse Of The Masks Design :
As the mask will perform like a magician, so it will be comprised of two major layers. The top layer is a Hard Shell, which will protect a patient’s face and also store electrical components. Underneath, around the contours of the patient’s face, a flexible polymer mask will be fitted. To extend the working ability of the mask, it’ll be embedded with three more layers also. An array of sensors will track the rate of healing. Actuators will push up against the wound and hold the mask in place. A network of micro-tubing and valves will pump therapeutics. Whether antibiotics and pain killers or stem cells and growth factor, doesn’t matter at all, but it will work onto specific regions of the wound.
“Sensors would monitor the wound, and treatment inside the mask would be based on that data,” Moss says. “If healing is accelerated in one area of the burn, then the mask would know to supply different therapeutics to that region. Surgeons do a great job. But the face that soldiers end up with has a lot of problems. There might be disfigurement or scars. They might be missing an ear or maybe they can’t blink. That face just can’t be fully used anymore.”
Sometime, better things come but lately. Biomask will offer customized 24/7 healing, along with fresh tissue instead of grafts. The team expects a device which will be ready for military hospitals within five years. Lets hope, no more burned faces soldiers we will see after 2017.
Source : Danger Room
Credit: UTA, Special Thanks to Eileen Moss, Primary Researcher on the Biomask Technology & Herb Booth, Media Relations Officer, UT Arlington.
[ttjad]
