Novel wound sealants: biomaterials and applications

Abstract

Wound sealants provide an excellent alternative for closing surgical and non-surgical wounds, as well as stopping external bleeding for prehospital trauma injuries. Numerous biomaterials have been investigated to address specific requirements for their use as suitable wound sealants. This article focuses on the development of new wound sealant biomaterials and recent advances in the surgical applications of wound sealants. In the past 5 years, many new sealant materials had been reported, including keratin, mussel-adhesive proteins, dendrimers and in situ-forming hydrogels. Fibrin sealants remain the most clinically studied for a variety of surgical procedures, while clinical experience with wound sealants for orthopedic surgery is limited. Both liquid and solid wound sealants have been developed and found effective by possessing strong adhesive properties. Biocompatible and biodegradable wound sealants hold much promise in eventually replacing sutures in most surgical procedures.

Keywords::

• biomaterials
• hemorrhage control
• tissue adhesives
• wound sealants

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Defence Research and Development Canada for their support.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.