An ICU-grade breathable cardiac electronic skin for health, diagnostics, and intraoperative and postoperative monitoring.

Summary

This work introduces BreaCARES, a breathable electronic skin that delivers ICU-grade, real-time, wireless cardiac monitoring suitable for outpatient diagnostics, intraoperative stability during cardiac surgery, and continuous postoperative care. It reports superior anti-interference stability, portability, and long-term biocompatibility compared with commonly used clinical/commercial cardiac monitors.

Key Findings

• Developed a breathable cardiac electronic skin (BreaCARES) enabling real-time, wireless, continuous cardiac monitoring with ICU-grade accuracy.
• Demonstrated stable intraoperative monitoring during heart surgery and continuous, comfortable postoperative monitoring.
• Reported superior anti-interference stability, portability, and long-term on-skin biocompatibility compared with clinical/commercial ICU cardiac monitors.

Clinical Implications

Potential to reduce lead-related artifacts and skin injury, expand monitoring to ambulatory and ward settings with fewer wires, and provide stable intraoperative cardiac signals—especially valuable in cardiac anesthesia and postoperative telemetry.

Limitations

• Abstract does not provide detailed sample sizes or controlled comparative outcome metrics (e.g., clinical endpoints)
• Lack of randomized clinical trials demonstrating outcome benefits

Future Directions

Conduct randomized or prospective comparative studies to demonstrate reductions in perioperative monitoring failures, skin complications, and to validate signal quality across diverse surgeries and patient populations.