Inner surface modification of ureteral stent polyurethane tubes based by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition to reduce encrustation and biofilm formation

Abstract

Encrustation and/or biofilm formation in ureteral stents are major causes of obstruction and reduce the lifetime of a ureteral stent. In this study, the inner surfaces of polyurethane (PU) tubes (inner and outer diameters of 1.2 and 2.0 mm, respectively) were reformed with Ar, O₂, and C₂H₂ gases using specialized plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition techniques for the first time. Then, the modified PU tubes were immersed in urine for 15 days, and the characteristics of the inner surfaces were analyzed. Depending on the modification procedure, the corresponding inner surface exhibited different chemical properties and different rates of encrustation and biofilm formation. For a hydrophilic surface treated with Ar and O₂, encrustation and biofilm formation increased, while for the C₂H₂ coating, the development of encrustation and biofilm reduced by more than five times compared with the untreated bare PU tube. This study demonstrated that inner plasma surface modification of ureteral stents greatly enhances resistance to encrustation and biofilm formation.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Plasma surface modification
• modification of tubes
• amorphous carbon
• biofouling
• ureteral stent

Ethical statement

Human urine samples were provided by the Samsung Medical Center, 81, Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and ethical approval was obtained from the Faculty of Samsung Medical Center Review Board (IRB No: 2019-11-071). All study participants provided informed consent.

Patient information was collected in a confidential manner according to the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1964 revised by the 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, in October 2013 (World Medical Association 2013).

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to researcher Young Jin Seo.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data sharing statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by SKKU-SMC Future Convergence Research Program Grant; this study was supported by SMC-KIST Collaborative Research Program.