January 2000

Slick Surgery

By Technology Review

After surgery, normally separate surfaces sometimes attach like biological Velcro-a process called adhesion, which interferes with recovery. A Boston startup has come up with the surgeon's equivalent of Saran Wrap to prevent adhesion.

According to inventor and CEO Amar Sawhney, Confluent Surgical is testing a device that squirts two streams of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in everything from eyedrops to lipstick. The streams are chemically modified so that when they meet, they react to form a solid that coats tissues with a jelly-like layer. Confluent has begun human testing in Europe for preventing adhesion in infertility treatments, where scars on the ovaries can prevent implanted eggs from descending into the fallopian tube.