An interesting patent
United States Patent 6,592,890
Green July 15, 2003
Conveyance of anti-infective activity to wound dressings

Abstract
A wound dressing having anti-infective activity. The wound dressing provides stable and improved formulations of precursors required in generating anti-infective Iodine specifically within a wound site where the oxygen tension may be very low. Furthermore, the design of the invention precludes interference by catalase (and other heme proteins.) in competing for hydrogen peroxide where hydrogen peroxide is used as a component of the Iodine generating formulation, ensuring more efficient and sustained production of free Iodine as a potent anti-infective agent. The invention takes advantage of the physical design of the wound dressing, and the permeation of body fluid into the dressing, which together serve to initiate formation of nascent iodine concomitant with placement of the dressing into, or over, a wound site. The invention circumvents the problem of trapping elemental iodine in the form of tri-iodide, which lacks microbicidal activity, by the chemical method of generating iodine de novo, and in the presence of excess oxidant. Newly formed iodine is thus able to egress and disperse throughout the wound site before there is an opportunity for it to become fully bound as tri-iodide, conferring to the wound site anti-infective activity. Two embodiments of the wound dressing invention are described comprising a mono- and bilayer configuration which, when placed in a wound site, confer to the site anti-infective properties.

United States Patent 6,482,309
Green , et al. November 19, 2002
Electrolytic generation of nascent Iodine as a method of treatment and for the prevention of infections associated with medical implant devices

Abstract
An anti-infective device generally comprising an oxidant generating formulation contained within at least a section of the device configured to electrolytically generate an anti-infective oxidant. The device has at least one of a cathode member and an anode member in the section of the device, configured to electrolyze the oxidant generating formulation to electrolytically generate the anti-infective oxidant. A power source is electrically connected to the cathode and anode members such that current passes between the cathode and anode members. In one embodiment, the oxidant generating formulation comprises a solid dispersed in a polymeric wall of the device. In a presently preferred embodiment, the cathode and anode members are completely embedded within the polymeric wall of the device, although in some embodiments they may be partially embedded within the polymeric wall of the device. In another embodiment, the oxidant generating formulation comprises a solution contained within a chamber in the device. The cathode and anode members are located within the chamber in contact with the solution. The electrolytically generated anti-infective substance is preferably elemental iodine. In one embodiment, the oxidant generating formulation comprises an iodide, which is oxidized at the anode member. In another embodiment, the oxidant generating formulation comprises an iodate which is reduced at the cathode member. Preferably, a proton donor is also present in the iodate containing oxidant generating formulation.

United States Patent 5,232,914
Fellman August 3, 1993
Solid, storage-stable, germicidal, pre-iodine composition

Abstract
A solid, storage-stable, germicidal, pre-iodine composition comprises in dry admixture with each other a solid oxy-compound of iodine, a solid reducing agent for the oxy-compound of iodine, and a solid desiccant used in amount sufficient to combine during the storage cycle of the composition with ambient and/or endogenous water. The oxy-compounds of Iodine are iodic acid, Iodine pentoxide, potassium iodate and sodium iodate. Preferred reducing agents are ascorbic acid, dihydroxy fumaric acid, the thiol sugars and cysteine. A preferred combination desiccant and Iodine solvating agent is polyvinyl pyrrollidone having a molecular weight of from 10,000 to 1,000,000. The composition is storage-stable for an indefinite period. Upon the addition of water, the oxy-compound of iodine is reduced to nascent iodine, which, in application, serves its well-known germicidal function.