Property determinants of dextran:polyethylene glycol adhesive sealants

Internal surgical intervention necessitates the intentional wounding of tissue. In certain clinical procedures, the desired wound healing response requires the use of closure techniques, such as suturing or stapling of disjoined tissues. Risk factors associated with these techniques are largely attributed to the discrete nature of the mechanical forces arising in the tissues. Adhesive sealants can mitigate risk by imparting a continuous stress distribution to tissues upon closure, as opposed to destructive stress concentrations. A novel class of dextran:polyethylene glycol hydrogels are a potential alternative to the limited selection of available adhesive sealants. Multiple compositional variations are available for both the dextran and polyethylene glycol components, making a wide range of clinically relevant material properties achievable. Key material properties determining sealant efficacy include hydration and degradation in an aqueous medium, elastic modulus, adhesion strength to tissue, and biocompatibility. Relationships between these pertinent properties and available compositional variations are determined for dextran:polyethylene glycol materials.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Shazly, Tarek (Tarek Michael)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Elazer R. Edelman.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39540