A rapidly degradable tissue adhesive polymer for implantable medical devices

Tissuemed is a Leeds based medical device company, the principal activity of which is thedesign, development and manufacture of innovative adhesive medical devices for use ininternal surgical procedures. The devices are based on the company’s proprietaryTissuebond™ bioadhesive technology and its family of CE marked TissuePatch™ productsare designed to improve clinical outcomes and provide cost benefits to hospitals.TissuePatch™ is an implantable device, akin to an internal sticking plaster and is used duringsurgery to provide a sealing effect that prevents intra and post-operative leaks of air, bloodand CSF fluid.To open the adhesive polymer technology to new markets, there is a requirement for a novelsecond generation tissue adhesive polymer with well-defined and controllable/tuneableproperties to suit the different applications and product requirements of sealant films, sprayable liquid glues, coated meshes, scaffolds and other medical devices.The development of a new polymer and implantable medical device is a lengthy process. Thegoal of this project is to undertake proof-of-concept synthetic and analytical chemistryinvestigations into a novel tissue adhesive. Specifically, this involves the incorporation ofcertain chemical functionalities into the polymer structure to enable fine-tuning ofperformance and resorption characteristics whilst retaining the superior efficacy properties ofthe existing Tissuebond™ polymer and without compromising safety and biocompatibility.