Crabshell-Based Polymer for Sealing Surgical Wounds

Filed in archive Diagnostics, Methodologies and Instrumentation on December 21, 2007

Surgilux is a thin polymer bio-film made from material extracted from crab shells that seals surgical wounds without the need for sutures.

Measuring just 50 microns thick, the film is placed on a surgical wound and exposed to an infrared laser, which heats the film just enough to meld it and the tissue, thus perfectly sealing the wound.

Initial tests indicate that it is best for use in brain and nerve surgery because it can avoid the numerous disadvantages of invasive stictches/sutures, which fail to seal and can act as a source of infection.

Read more from the USW and the Sydney Morning Herald.