Biodegradable Zwitterionic Cream Gel for Effective Prevention of Postoperative Adhesion

Postoperative peritoneal adhesions are frequent complications for almost any type of abdominal and pelvic surgery. This leads to numerous medical problems and a huge financial burden to the patients. Current anti-adhesion strategies focus mostly on physical barriers including films and hydrogels. However, they can only alleviate or reduce adhesions to a certain level and their applying processes are far from ideal. This work reported the development of a biodegradable zwitterionic cream gel presenting a series of characters for an ideal anti-adhesion material, including unique injectable yet malleable and self-supporting properties, which enables an instant topical application, no curing, waiting, or suturing, no hemostasis requirement, protein/cell resistance, and biodegradability. The cream gel shows a major advancement in anti-adhesion efficacy by completely and reliably preventing a primary and more severe recurrent adhesion in rat models.

Automated summary

Postoperative peritoneal adhesions are common complications that lead to medical problems and financial burden. Current anti-adhesion strategies focus on physical barriers, but a new biodegradable zwitterionic cream gel has shown promising results in preventing adhesions in animal models.