Jul 30, 2025
Applications
How Advanced Hydrogel Dressings Heal Patients Faster, Safer, and with Less Pain
Sinan Gölhan
Founder & CEO at GelTech Labs
When you're living with a chronic wound—like a diabetic foot ulcer or a pressure injury—every day matters.
These wounds don’t just affect skin. They impact mobility, independence, and emotional wellbeing. For some patients, they lead to hospitalization or even amputation. For others, they become an invisible burden—costing them weeks or months of healing.
But what if a simple, soft gel dressing could make that journey faster, less painful, and more successful?
In this edition, I explore how advanced hydrogel dressings are doing just that—and why smarter testing and faster development could help millions more.
A Wound That Heals 9 Days Faster Means 9 Days Less Suffering
A 2019 study published in International Wound Journal compared advanced hydrogel dressings to standard gauze for diabetic foot ulcers. The results?
Average healing time dropped by 9.1 days in the hydrogel group. (Reference: Fumarola et al., Int Wound J. 2019;16(1):104–112)
That’s 9 fewer days of risk. 9 fewer dressing changes. 9 fewer days of stress, anxiety, and disruption.
For pressure ulcers, similar findings emerge. A Cochrane meta-analysis from 2017 found that hydrogel dressings:
Reduce pain during dressing changes
Improve healing rates for Stage II pressure ulcers
Decrease risk of secondary infection (Reference: Dumville et al., Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;6:CD011226)
Why Hydrogels Are Kinder to the Body
Unlike dry dressings or adhesives that can stick to fragile tissue, hydrogels offer a moist, cooling interface that supports the body’s natural healing process.
Benefits include:
Autolytic debridement: Hydrogels assist the body in removing dead tissue
Pain relief: The high water content soothes the wound surface
Reduced dressing trauma: No ripping, pulling, or tearing
Improved patient compliance: Especially in outpatient or home-care settings
A 2021 clinical trial in Wound Repair and Regeneration found that patients using hydrogel dressings reported a 40% reduction in pain scores during treatment compared to foam or gauze dressings. (Reference: Kim et al., Wound Repair Regen. 2021;29(5):753–762)
Financial Impact Still Matters—but Patients Come First
It’s true that hydrogel dressings can also lower the total cost of care. Shorter healing times mean:
Fewer clinic visits
Reduced home nursing costs
Lower risk of hospitalization or amputation
Studies show potential savings of $800 to $1,200 per patient in moderate-to-severe wounds. But the real impact is human: fewer infections, less pain, faster return to daily life.
Why This Technology Isn’t Reaching More People
Despite the evidence, many hydrogel innovations stall in the lab. Why?
Because testing is slow, expensive, and often manual.
At GelTech Labs, we’re building automation tools that make it easier to characterize swelling, degradation, and absorption—faster and with higher resolution. That means better materials, brought to market faster, reaching more patients.
Every extra day of healing time is a day patients shouldn’t have to lose. Let’s fix that.