Suture threads have been the conventional tool used to stitch up wounds. However, after surgeries were conducted on organs such as intestines or kidneys, threads were sometimes incapable of completely sealing the wound. As a result, leakage of digestive enzymes or urine could always lead to another infection or a relapse. Thus, research efforts have been made on surgical adhesives to compensate for the disadvantages of suture threads.
Unfortunately, they ended up being abortive because adhesion decreased too much underwater and the chemical property of an adhesive caused inflammation. With the mussel adhesion-employed water-immiscible fluid bioadhesive (WIMBA) developed by Hyung Joon Cha (CE), a further step was taken toward a new paradigm for surgical operations. WIMBA not only reduces operation and curing time but also reduces the gap between operative results depending on the adeptness of the surgeon. When tested with a fistula on mice’s kidney tissues, WIMBA proved to maintain its adhesive condition stably, although it was exposed to contraction and relaxation of the kidney as well as moisture.
The achievement was submitted in Biomaterials on Sep. 8 and if this technology is successfully commercialized, it is expected to lead a world market of pertaining fields whose size is estimated to be 140 billion dollars annually.