Sticky tape is very easy to attach anywhere, but sometimes very difficult then to get out of there. With this problem faced by researchers from MIT (USA), when last year developed a new surgical instrument – adhesive tape for fixing on the internal organs. And now they have come up as safely remove it after executing the main task.
Duct tape was developed as an alternative to stitches, so you can simply glue the slit from a scalpel into the heart after surgery to patch the intestine, attach to internal organs implants. The main difficulty is where to get a glue that will work with wet, constantly washed by fluids of surfaces? Output was the creation of the material of the polyacrylic acid with the inclusion of esters.
New material as absorption of moisture creates a soft hydrogen bonds with the tissue, and strengthen their esters. It worked even better than expected – after gluing the tape is impossible to tear without the risk of damaging living tissue. So scientists started looking for solutions which led them to the peptide glutathione, widely represented in the human body. When included in the adhesive add ordinary baking soda breaks hydrogen bonds and makes it easy to peel off the bandage.
No matter how strong any initial connection, simply 5 minutes of processing to break old ties and turn adhesive into a gel. In case the adhesive layer will be deeply recessed in living tissue, the new versions have special slots and channels in which the solvent is delivered directly to him. The technology has already proved its effectiveness when working with internal pig organs – kidney, heart and intestine.
Source — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences