Stapling and suturing are routine parts of surgical procedures, but they’ve always had downsides. In many situations it may be difficult to get a stapler to a site or to have enough room to insert sutures. Moreover, suturing and stapling can damage fragile soft tissue.
A team of French scientists have now used silicon dioxide and iron oxide nanoparticles as a glue to bind soft, wet tissues together, in many cases better than using sutures or staples. The aqueous nanoparticle solution allowed the creation of “nanobridges” that bind tissues firmly against each other without leaving anything at the junction. They tested the technology in rats, achieving impressive hemostasis after holding a wound closed for a minute after the nanoparticle glue application. Moreover, they were able to attach a membrane to the beating heart of a rat, opening up the possibility of using nanoparticles as an adhesive for implantation of medical devices and for delivery of drugs in a controlled manner.
Study in Angewandte Chemie: Organ Repair, Hemostasis, and In Vivo Bonding of Medical Devices by Aqueous Solutions of Nanoparticles…
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