The science of sticky: Making bandages stay on longer with ultrasound waves

Hydrogel adhesive applied on skin under ultrasound probe (McGill University / Zhenwei Ma)

A lone bandage floating in a kiddie pool. Medical tape peeling up at the edges. Adhesives gone rogue in the gastrointestinal space.

Could these issues be a thing of the past?

For a team of researchers from McGill University, ETH Zurich and the University of British Columbia, that's the dream.

A study published in the journal Science found the stickiness of adhesive bandages can be manipulated with technology you're likely already familiar with: ultrasound waves.

The idea is to create "microbubbles," explains lead study author Zhenwei Ma, a McGillian-turned-Harvard research fellow.

These microbubbles -- tiny, gas-filled pockets smaller than 0.01mm in diameter -- allow sticky substances to bond more securely to the skin.

"It will temporarily open up the channels and allow the adhesive to temporarily and transiently get in," Ma told CTV News.

Ultrasound microbubbles are used to control the efficacy of adhesion on the skin. (McGill University . Zhenwei Ma)

"We're not changing the adhesive material," he clarified. "We're actually engineering our tissue temporarily so we can have better integration with the adhesive bandages."

The study found this approach, tested on the skin of pigs and rats, can make adhesion up to 10 times more effective.

THE OPERATING TABLE AND BEYOND

Although the technique has yet to be tested on humans, Ma says the research shows enormous promise.

"Some applications would be for internal organ repair," he said. "Sometimes you don't want it to adhere everywhere, right? I mean, think about your internal organs, especially in the internal GI tract, in the gastrointestinal space. For cardiovascular surgeries, for musculoskeletal tissue repair, sometimes you only want adhesion to happen at certain places."

The technology would permit surgeons to be selective about where the adhesive is stickiest -- and where it isn't.

"You don't want it to be sticking everywhere."

A hydrogel adhesive applied on the skin Zhenwei Ma)

Another possible application is within the realm of drug delivery through the skin.

"We also showed in our paper we can enable transdermal drug delivery," Ma explained. "It can trigger this delivery and strong integration with your skin or some other organs."

But what about your run-of-the-mill bandages and pimple patches? Will the technology ever appear in our bathroom cabinets?

It's possible, said Ma.

"Ultrasound is becoming so prevalent in not just in clinics, but also in point-of-care applications," he said.

With these advancements in portable ultrasound devices, there's no telling where the technology will go.

"Everything's happening so fast, and especially for these technologies. As long as you solve the scaling problem, if you can lower the costs."