A new innovation, from RMIT University, Australia School of Engineering, is targeting post-operative surgery infections, targeting the site of surgery. The risk of infections following surgery are higher with older people or those with compromised immune systems.
The development is in the form of a suture (sterile surgical threads used to repair cuts) based on a vaginal mesh implant, designed to lower the risk of a prolapse occurring (a pelvic organ prolapse is bulging of one or more of the pelvic organs into the vagina). The technology should lend itself to a wider application.
The suture was designed using carbon dots, or a combo of nanoparticles (including iodine), according to Laboratory Roots. These carbon dots were woven throughout the material. The carbon dots have the ability to glow (being formed of a radiopaque material) and they are visible on computerised tomography (CT) scans. In a trial, when the suture was applied to chicken meat, the CT scan could readily detect the suture.
The carbon dots were incorporated into polycaprolactone via a coaxial extrusion technique. This technique was inspired by a “core-shell” multi-layered suture structure, which integrates multiple clinically favourable functions into each suture device.
Discussing the material, Dr Shadi Houshyar states in relation to the sutures: “They can be tailored to create biodegradable stitches or a permanent suture, or even to be adhesive on one side only, where required”.
She adds: “This project opens up a lot of practical solutions for surgeons, which has been our aim from the start and the reason we have involved clinicians in the study.”
With sutures there is a microbial risk. This occurs due to the adhesion of bacteria onto the surface of the suture, a factor that increases due to its suture structure and subsequent biofilm formation. This made the incorporation of antimicrobial technology an important design feature.
The antimicrobial element comes about through the combining of iodine and carbon dots, which function at normal body temperature. Trials indicate that such a suture can significantly reduce the levels of drug-resistant bacteria present within six hours. Hence, the sutures can reduce the incidence of mesh infections.
The use of carbon nanodots also enables additional structures suitable for medical use, such as stitches that readily degrade.
A further advantage with carbon nanodots relates to them being inexpensive to produce and easy to manufacture to scale.
The research appears in the journal OpenNano titled “Smart suture with iodine contrasting nanoparticles for computed tomography.”
