Instead of stitches or skin staples, doctors use skin glue to close wounds. The glue joins
the edges of a wound together while the wounds heal underneath. Most of the time
skin glue is used for simple cuts or wounds. According to the paper published in
Science Translational Medicine, there are no clinically approved surgical glues that
are non-toxic, bind strongly to tissue, and work well in wet and highly dynamic
environments within the body. This is the reason why this published work is promising
where infants born with heart defects would benefit tremendously.
Researchers at the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston have engineered ‘bio-inspired’ glue
that can bind strongly to tissues on demand, and work well in the presence of
actively contracting tissues and blood flow. The authors of the paper show how
the glue can effectively be used to repair defects of the heart and blood vessels
during minimally invasive procedures.
[References: P. J. del Nido et al; Sci. Transl. Med., DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006557; See also, www.geckobiomedical.com/news/gecko-biomedicals-co-founde.html]
