Special Mould

I remember when one of the pipes in the kitchen leaks, I always turn to epoxy to seal the leaking area. Now imagine this being applied in a real human body. A new heat-sensitive gel and glue combo has been introduced in the realm of cardiovascular surgery,. The special mould enables blood vessels to be reconnected without puncturing and sticking a needle and thread into it. The reason behind the creation of this substance is the difficulty to suture minuscule (~ 1 mm wide) blood vessels.

The process of the discovery of the glue is as follows:

"Sutures work by stitching together sides of a blood vessel and then tightening the stitch to pull open the lumen, or the inner part of the vessel, so the blood can flow through. Gluing a vessel together instead would require keeping the lumens open to their full diameter — think of trying to attach two deflated balloons. But dilating the lumen by inserting something inside introduces a wide range of problems, too.

Gurtner initially thought about using ice to fill up the lumen instead, but that meant making the vessels extremely cold, which would be too time-consuming and difficult on the operating table. He approached an engineering professor, Gerald Fuller, about using some kind of biocompatible phase change material, which could easily turn from a liquid to a solid and back again. It turned out Fuller knew of a thermo-reversible polymer, Poloxamer 407, that was already FDA approved for medical use.

Working with materials scientists, the team figured out how to modify the polymer so that it would become solid and elastic when heated warmer than body temperature, and would dissolve into the bloodstream at body temperature. In a study on rat aortas, the team heated it with a halogen lamp, and used the solidified polymer to fill up the lumen, opening it all the way. Then they used an existing bioadhesive to glue the blood vessels back together.

The polymer technique was five times faster than the traditional hand-sewing method, the researchers say. It even worked on superfine blood vessels, just 0.2 millimeters wide, which would not work with a needle and thread. The team monitored test subject rats for up to two years after the polymer suturing, and found no complications."

Based on stem cell research, I don't see why it wouldn't come into this discovery as well.

Thoughts?

Source:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-08/new-gel-glue-method-rejoins-cut-blood-vessels-better-stitches