Polycaprolactone in prevention of post-surgical adhesion

Polycaprolactone in prevention of post-surgical adhesion
Abstract
Adhesions are unavoidable consequences of surgery and other trauma. Although adhesion is a physiologically inevitable and important part of wound healing, undesirable postsurgical adhesions can cause serious complications including: pain, functional obstruction, and harder second surgeries.
To reduce postsurgical adhesion formation, fibrinolytic agents, anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory agents, and antibiotics have been used . However, these agents alone cannot prevent adhesion formation effectively because clearance occurs too rapidly. Recently, a variety of bioresorbable anti-adhesion barriers have been developed.
Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a biodegradable polyester with a low melting point of around 60°C and a glass transition temperature of about -60°C. PCL holds certain advantages over other polymers such as polylactic acid. These advantages are that: (i) it is more stable in ambient conditions; (ii) it is significantly less expensive; and (iii) it is readily available in large quantities.
Firstly, this study was based on polycaprolactone to evaluate the efficacy of its anti-adhesion, and the anti-adhesion result was promising. Additionally, ibuprofen

was loaded to polycaprolactone and fabricated to films in different fraction. This novel film had rougher surface, lower contact angle, more bioadhesive strength and better anti-adhesion ability than control group. Thirdly, polycaprolactone was ultrasound treated at different period, and resulted in many more micropores, the roughness of film surface enhanced under atomic force microscopy, and bioadhesive strength increased as well. No aging phenomenon was found for ultrasound treated PCL film.