Simulation of Transdermal Toxin Expulsion via Adsorptive Dermal Patch using COMSOL Multiphysics®

Mathematical skin models play an important role in fields such as transdermal drug delivery and assessment of dermal exposure to industrial chemicals. Extensive research has been conducted on modeling skin for transdermal drug delivery; however, little effort has been made to view the skin as a permeable layer to expel waste chemicals or toxins from the body. In this work, we focused on topical application of charcoal poultices or dermal patches that are used for expelling impurities through transdermal adsorption. We developed a two-dimensional computational skin model to evaluate removal of toxins through skin as diffusive and permeable layers. The result demonstrated that topical application of a highly adsorptive layer is an effective way of accelerating the toxin expulsion process.