“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic”-Arthur C. Clarke
When surgeons complete a successful operation, everyone should breathe a sigh of relief. But real relief may not come until weeks or months later, when doctors remove the patient’s sutures or staples with the assumption that there is no leakage, which may take the patient back to hospital.
Australian and U. S scientists have created a highly-elastic surgical glue that can quickly seal even the toughest wounds, without staples or stitches. It is also ideal for closing up difficult-to-seal wounds in tissues that repeatedly expand and relax, such as lungs, hearts and arteries.
Many of the currently available tissue adhesives are being used in place of stitches or staples to close wounds. They are often quicker and easier to use than stitches for closing wounds and don’t create puncture marks, but they can unseal easily, don’t adhere well in surgical sites with a lot of fluid and are not flexible enough for expansion.
The adhesive, called MeTro, fills in wounds and sets in just 60 seconds once treated with UV light. It is an elastic gel that can be applied to open cuts to seal it, like a clear band-aid. The gel is made from a human protein that reacts to ultraviolet light. It is applied to a wound through a syringe and when the light activates it, the wound is sealed. The material also contains a degrading enzyme that can last from hours to month, depending on how it has been modified, and dissolves once the wound has had enough time to heal.
Nasim Annabi, the creator of MeTro technology, says that the adhesive goes on like a liquid and then conforms to the shape of the wound. As soon as it comes in contact with tissue surfaces, it solidifies into a gel-like phase.
The adhesive nature of this technology helps to transform surgeries and increases the quality of post-op healing. The gel can also be more easily applied to areas that are hard to reach during surgery.
REFERENCES