Addressing Current Challenges in Hydrogel Wound Dressing Strategies for Chronic Wound Management: Advances and Future Directions

Given the market for chronic wound care, where wound dressings are the key product, it should go without saying that providing satisfactory wound dressings is critical. A wide variety of wound dressings have been developed. Hydrogel has drawn attention as a potential wound dressing for chronic wounds. Hydrogel may absorb large amounts of water and up to 90% of biological fluids because it is a hydrophilic polymer. Nevertheless, there are still a number of unresolved issues with hydrogel, including frequent changing, the absence of real-time wound monitoring, maceration risk, and limited patient mobility. Several studies have attempted to overcome the limitations of hydrogel wound dressings. However, it is also possible that some problems are still unsolved or practically unproven. This review will discuss the limitations of the developed hydrogel dressings. We will also try to discuss prospective future projects and the strategies and tactics that have been investigated to circumvent the existing limitations.