Innovative Wound Management in Crisis Settings Using Tissue Engineering Dressings: A Literature Review of Global Advances with a Health Promotion Approach

Crisis settings, including armed conflict, natural disasters, and mass displacement, create an overwhelming burden of acute and chronic wounds while simultaneously destroying health infrastructure. Traditional wound care requiring sterile supplies, clean water, and trained personnel is rarely feasible. This literature review synthesizes global advances in tissue engineering dressings for wound management in crisis settings, evaluated through a health promotion framework. A comprehensive review was conducted, focusing on biomimetic scaffolds, hydrogels, nanotechnology-enhanced dressings, bioactive materials, and frugal innovations. Main results indicate that tissue engineering dressings—including electrospun nanofibers, ۳D bioprinted scaffolds, medical-grade honey-impregnated matrices, and low-cost negative pressure wound therapy—demonstrate significant clinical efficacy in promoting granulation, reducing infection, and accelerating healing even in low-resource environments. However, implementation gaps persist, including lack of community participation, psychosocial neglect, unsustainable supply chains, and limited evidence from crisis-specific settings. When viewed through a health promotion lens, successful integration requires community empowerment, task-shifting to lay providers, and reorientation of health services. This review concludes that tissue engineering dressings can be adapted for crisis settings, but only if paired with health promotion strategies that address social determinants, mental health, and local capacity building.

کلیدواژه ها:

tissue engineering ، wound dressing ، crisis settings ، health promotion ، low-resource