A patient is rushed into hospital. Doctors crack the patient’s chest to operate. A life is saved, but what comes next? In order to access the heart and lungs, the sternum had to be opened, but closing it again and healing the wound is often more problematic than the surgery itself.
Researchers in Ireland and Germany have developed an adhesive to address this issue. Standard practise for sternal closure winds steel wires around the bones to immobilise them as they heal. However, displacement can occur in active patients and older bones can be weak, resulting in the wires cutting through. If the bones part again, a patient can be in agony.
Interested? Read the full article at Chemistry World.
Cohesive coupling, complexation and redox radical polymerisation work together to resist displacement
The original article can be read below:
Biomimetic Hyperbranched Poly(amino ester)-based Nanocomposite as Tunable Bone Adhesive for Sternal Closure
Wenxin Wang, Hong Zhang, Ligia Bre, Tianyu Zhao, Ben Newland and Mark Dacosta
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C4TB00155A
