Page 7 - Hospital_Insights_1_2022

SPECIALITY

Engineers develop surgical

‘duct tape’ as an alternative

to sutures

The sticky patch could be quickly applied to repair gut leaks and tears

Caption: A new MIT-designed surgical sticky tape can be applied quickly and easily, like duct tape to a pipe, to repair leaks and
tears in the gastrointestinal tract and other tissues and organs. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

staple on any engineer’s work- has shown the patch can be quickly “We think this surgical tape is a
bench, duct tape is a quick and stuck to large tears and punctures in good base technology to be made
A dependable fix for cracks and the colon, stomach, and intestines of into an actual, off-the-shelf product,”
tears in many structural materials. various animal models. The adhe- says Hyunwoo Yuk, a research
MIT engineers have now developed a sive binds strongly to tissues within scientist in MIT’s Department of
kind of surgical duct tape -- a strong, several seconds and holds for over a Mechanical Engineering. “Surgeons
flexible, and biocompatible sticky month. It is also flexible, able to ex- could use it as they use duct tape
patch that can be easily and quickly pand and contract with a functioning in the nonsurgical world. It doesn’t
applied to biological tissues and or- organ as it heals. Once an injury is need any preparation or prior step.
gans to help seal tears and wounds. fully healed, the patch gradually de- Just take it out, open, and use.”
grades without causing inflammation
Like duct tape, the new patch is or sticking to surrounding tissues. Yuk, the study’s co-lead and
sticky on one side and smooth on the co-corresponding author, and his
other. In its current formulation, the The team envisions the surgical colleagues have published their
adhesive is targeted to seal defects sticky patch could one day be results in the journal Science Trans-
in the gastrointestinal tract, which the stocked in operating rooms and lational Medicine. Other co-authors
engineers describe as the body’s own used as a fast and safe alternative include MIT postdoc and lead
biological ductwork. or reinforcement to hand-sewn su-
tures to repair leaks and tears in the
In numerous experiments, the team gut and other biological tissues. 8

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