A pair of balloons and some glue can do the work of surgical stitches.
Stitches — the wound closure method of choice for millennia — can be tricky to use in tight places. So Harvard University bioengineer Ellen Roche and colleagues invented a new tool to deliver light-activated glue patches to remote spots inside the body.
The team used a catheter to thread two balloons and a glue patch through pig organs and even the hearts of living rats. Inflating the balloons pressed patch to tissue. And a fiber optic wire inside one of the balloons shined ultraviolet (UV) light on the glue to make it sticky.
The balloon-and-glue combo could offer surgeons a less invasive way to close up wounds that are more than just skin deep, researchers suggest September 23 in Science Translational Medicine.
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