Sticky Tape to Heal Surgical Incisions

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Langer and Karp also seem to have overcome another pitfall facing these gecko tapes. Some have appeared to have great strength when only a few nanopillars are tested, but are not as strong when tested on a larger scale. (See "No Spiderman Suit Anytime Soon.") When tested on pork intestine and in mice, the MIT tape held up.

The advantage of such a tape over the sutures and staples traditionally used to close wounds is that it would be noninvasive and easy to place, says Karp. Sutures and staples puncture tissue and can cause damage that leads to necrosis. And sutures and staples must be very carefully placed along an incision. "You have to realign the tissue with each stitch," says Karp. Tape could be placed in one motion, potentially shortening the time that patients are on the surgical table. The medical tape could also help doctors during laparoscopic surgeries, which are performed through a small scope. "It's difficult to tie knots in small places," says Karp. "You could have the tape unfold and apply it through the [laparoscopic] needle."

Karp says that another application for the tape might be to reinforce sutures and staples used when a segment of the gastrointestinal tract is removed during gastric bypass surgery. "There are low complication rates, but leaks are catastrophic," says Karp. The tape could release antibiotics as well as drugs that promote healing.

The MIT tape could also simply act as a drug patch, even in tissues that stretch and contract, like the heart. "It's elastic, so it should withstand the mechanical forces of the heart," says Karp. After a heart attack, patients often have regions of damaged tissue that don't get enough oxygen. This can lead to heart failure. Injecting a stem-cell-attracting factor into damaged areas of the heart encourages tissue regeneration, but piercing the heart in this way can be dangerous. Karp says that a patch of medical tape might deliver these factors just as effectively and put the patient at lower risk.

Both the mechanical properties of Karp's tape and its rate of degradation can be tuned to suit different tissues. Karp says that his team's next step is to work with doctors to identify medical applications that have the most to gain from the use of the tape, and then develop the tape to suit them.