LUMINA Adhesives has spent the last 15 years developing a light switchable adhesive for medical dressing applications that provides strong fixation while being easy to remove and causes no damage to the skin.
The team at LUMINA has worked with physicians and medical professionals to refine the technology as well as the dressings using this adhesive to ensure they are safe and practical to use on patients. The LUMINA dressings are already on the market and are used in hospitals and medical centers. CEO of LUMINA, Magnus Blixt, says the technology solves two critical problems in the clinical setting.
The first problem is the removal of dressings from patients. This is an issue for the elderly and people with sensitive skin. They are known to be in the risk group for experiencing so-called MARSI (medical adhesive related skin injury). According to Blixt, these two categories of people often experience high levels of pain and bruising when traditional dressings are removed.
The second problem LUMINA’s technology is solving is the assurance of good enough adhesion when a dressing is applied to a patient’s skin. If a dressing does not provide enough adhesion it can affect the therapy or treatment. Poor fixation may result in insufficient needle and tubing fixation or bacterial prevention for surgical wounds. This can cause further problems for a patient as well as cause additional cost for the health care provider.
LUMINA solves these problems with an adhesive that has two modes. Initially the adhesive is applied with very strong adhesion to the skin. The adhesion can then be turned “off” to make the removal easy and skin-friendly.
When a dressing using the innovative LUMINA adhesive is being removed it is first exposed to UVA light for a few seconds. The UVA light is provided in a hand-held flashlight. The light initiates a chemical reaction in the adhesive, changing its state and making it non-sticky. The dressing is then easy and pain free to remove and leaves no residue or bruising on the patient.
According to Blixt, the company has spent 15 years perfecting the technology. He says a good medical adhesive needs a combination of breathability and strength as well as comfort. The company spent a lot of time on optimizing all these parameters. In 2015, LUMINA began CE marking of the light switchable platform, and clinical studies were performed and published. In 2022 LUMINA released an improved version of the light switchable adhesive, and in 2023 the company's first OEM agreement was entered for the use of the LUMINA technology in a customer product.
The team at LUMINA aims for the adhesive technology to be used worldwide so that no patient will need to suffer skin damage from dressings or unintentional movement of IV needles and medical tubing. Blixt says LUMINA can provide the medical dressing market with a unique and compelling solution to well-known and real problems.
“Our mission is to prevent skin damage and pain when it comes to dressing removal and at the same time provide health care professionals with confidence in the fixation on patients' skin,” says Blixt. “To enable the implementation of this solution as quickly as possible we are now seeking collaboration with other companies that design, manufacture, and sell medical dressings to hospitals and clinics.”
Media Contact:
Name: Magnus Blixt
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.lumina.se
