**Abstract**

Recently hydrogels and the treatment of skin wounds based on hydrogel dressings have become one of the research hotspots in the field of skin trauma. In this chapter, we focus on the materials and methods of hydrogel preparation, and discuss the properties that hydrogels should possess for the treatment of wounds. Moreover, we discuss the potential of non-invasive optical imaging techniques in the assessment of cutaneous wound healing. The research results of the application of non-invasive optical techniques such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) in scar identification, skin bruising, and skin and vascular structure identification are reviewed. Furthermore, we further discuss the superiority and potential of current artificial intelligence (AI) technology in dermatological diagnosis, and analyze the application status of hydrogel in skin wound treatment. Finally, we believe that the combination of AI and optical imaging technology in the development and efficacy monitoring of hydrogels will be a promising research direction in the future.

**Keywords:** hydrogel, OCT, *in vivo* imaging, artificial intelligence, wound healing
