Double-sided tape for tissues could replace surgical sutures

Eureka Alert ^ | 10/30/19

[Libloather]

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Inspired by a sticky substance that spiders use to catch their prey, MIT engineers have designed a double-sided tape that can rapidly seal tissues together.

In tests in rats and pig tissues, the researchers showed that their new tape can tightly bind tissues such as the lungs and intestines within just five seconds. They hope that this tape could eventually be used in place of surgical sutures, which don't work well in all tissues and can cause complications in some patients.

"There are over 230 million major surgeries all around the world per year, and many of them require sutures to close the wound, which can actually cause stress on the tissues and can cause infections, pain, and scars. We are proposing a fundamentally different approach to sealing tissue," says Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study.

The double-sided tape can also be used to attach implantable medical devices to tissues, including the heart, the researchers showed. In addition, it works much faster than tissue glues, which usually take several minutes to bind tightly and can drip onto other parts of the body.

[doorgunner69]

What company is going to manufacture and market this tape?

3M, of course.

[doorgunner69]

As the old saying goes about: shiite happens....

[Karliner]

Said to be faster healing than mesh. Appears to bond and possibly a much better hold. If this can work it's revolutionary and could possible cut down not just recovery times but improve the efficacy of most surgeries. This might help? To me this is extraordinary for wound healing Bionispired Double Sided Surgery

[Libloather]

Amazing stuff.

[Svartalfiar]

I’m surprised they haven’t yet developed a medical-grade super glue for alot of the internal stuff like this. Maybe this ‘spider web’ is that invention!