The application of glue to a vessel defect.RANDAL MCKENZIE (MCKENZIE ILLUSTRATIONS)The material: Inspired by the gooey secretions made by slugs, snails, and worms, and realizing an opportunity to improve how blood vessels and congenital heart defects are repaired during surgery, researchers in Boston have developed and tested a new type of surgical glue. The material has all the right properties: it sticks well to wet tissue, repels blood and water, and is strong enough to bind major blood vessels even when under the pressure of flowing blood. The team, led by Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston Children’s Hospital cardiac surgeon Pedro del Nido, has so far shown that the glue can seal the carotid artery and stick to the heart wall during surgery in pigs.
“We tested the adhesive in probably the most demanding and dynamic environment in the body—the heart—and found that it works. This is a very high bar,” said del Nido. “Something like this could revolutionize the way surgery is done, especially on the delicate tissue of newborns and children.”
What’s new: Contractions of the heart and constant blood flow make reconnecting blood vessels, attaching devices, and sealing holes in the heart during surgery difficult. Sutures and staples are routinely used, but are not elastic and can exert damaging pressure on tissue. Yet most currently available medical-grade superglues are toxic—triggering an inflammatory response—and buckle under the high-pressure force of blood flowing in larger vessels.
This new material “is able to resist physiologic blood pressures while maintaining some ...
