Sealant Inspired By Beach Worm Could Become Surgical Superglue

Remember that wacky glue commercial from the 1980s? "Krazy Glue, you crazy rat," the narrator says. "Strong enough to hold this man suspended in mid-air." He promises the stuff can bond almost anything: a plastic knob, a plastic plug, a rubber boot, a door knob, and even a flashlight case.Heck, a version of the everlasting adhesive is even approved by the Food and Drug Administration to seal skin wounds.But superglue can't fix a broken heart — or even a torn artery. Yet.Now a team of doctors and engineers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston are getting close to changing that. Their unlikely inspiration is a 3-inch worm that lives off the coast of California.Cardiac surgeon Pedro del Nido and his colleagues have developed a biodegradable adhesive that can patch a hole in a pig's heart or artery. The experimental glue is nontoxic and is strong enough to hold up under the high pressures in the human heart, the team report Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.So far, they've tested the glue only in animals. So the sealant is far from reaching the operating room or battlefield. But del Nido hopes the adhesive will eventually replace traditional sutures and staples for some operations, especially heart surgery."A glue is the holy grail for repairing hearts," del Nido tells Shots. "Right now we use sutures. Every time the needle and thread enter normal tissue, they do a little bit of damage. Usually it doesn't matter. But I repair children's hearts. For th...
Source: Medical Hemostat - Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Source Type: blogs