Synthetic approaches involving cyclic acetal groups for the design of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers

This microreview addresses relevant data of current studies involving the exploitation of cyclic acetals in the design of degradable synthetic polymers. Two approaches are presented: polymerization of cyclic acetal units and formation of cyclic acetal units after the polymerization. This microreview contains data from the few fundamental references and literature published in the period from 2007 to 2018.