Joining Blood Vessels Without Sutures 54
Med-trump writes "Stanford microsurgeons have used a poloxamer gel and bioadhesive, rather than a needle and thread, to join together blood vessels. The technique, published in the recent issue of Nature Medicine, may replace the 100-year-old method of reconnecting severed blood vessels with sutures. According to the authors of the study, 'ultimately, this has the potential to improve patient care by decreasing amputations, strokes and heart attacks while reducing health-care costs.'"
Polymer that dissolves when cooled (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Reducing Costs... (Score:5, Informative)
Canada is a AAA rated country. They can afford to give a shit.
Re:Expanding the scope of existing techniques (Score:4, Informative)
Imagine trying to glue together the open ends of two tube socks. It would be time consuming to line up the ends and not glue the other side together, etc. This technique is like putting a solid round canister inside the junction of the two tubes, making it very quick to line up the edges and glue them together.
In this case the canister is a cylinder of poloxamer gel that is solid when warmed above body temperature. After the connection is glued, the gel cools and liquifies, leaving a perfectly glued joint.
Re:Best bet? Don't get sick! (Score:3, Informative)