| The advancement in laparoscopic and robotic surgeries is calling for innovation in wound closure methods where the classical mechanical ligatures are proving very challenging due to reduction in surgical spaces, even for seasoned surgeons. Tissue adhesives have been investigated as an alternative and/or adjuvant method to address some of these unmet needs. Previously in our lab, Sanders and co-workers developed a successful synthetic adhesive by modifying Tetronic 1107 to incorporate acrylate (ACR) for chemical crosslinking and N-hydroxisuccinimide (NHS) to enhance tissue bonding, improving the seminal work done by Cho et al. However, solutions of modified T1107 would undergo reverse thermal gelation below room temperature, imposing a usability limitation since they could gel while being handled, and a functional limitation because if the material gelled to fast it would not make a good contact with the microstructure of the underlying tissues. Therefore, the main objective of this master's thesis research is to further improve the performance of these Tetronic-based adhesives by controlling the gelation temperature of these polymeric systems. To control the gelation temperatures of functionalized T1107 blends solutions, the acrylated version of a lower molecular Tetronic, T304, was incorporated into these polymers blends. This strategy proved to be effective to control de gelation temperature of the Tetronic-based adhesives, and also extended their degradation times. However, increased amounts of T304-ACR were correlated with lower adhesive strengths. With the right blend ratio, these three properties can be balanced to yield a mechanically strong adhesive, with a useful degradation profile and controlled gelation temperature. |
