Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Nov 2015
A novel bioabsorbable pericardial membrane substitute to reduce postoperative pericardial adhesions in a rabbit model.
In paediatric cardiac surgery, reoperations remain challenging since the injury and the formation of dense adhesions before reoperations can be life-threatening to the heart, bypass conduits or great vessels. To prevent the formation of dense adhesions, a variety of different types of pericardial membrane substitute have been employed. However, due to peel formation, calcification and infection, the routine application of these pericardial membrane substitute has not been achieved clinically. A novel bioabsorbable membrane has been developed from polylactic acid (PLA) to overcome these drawbacks. The purpose of this study was to assess the biosafety and the effectiveness of PLA membrane as a new bioabsorbable pericardial membrane substitute after pericardium replacement in a rabbit model. ⋯ To prevent the formation of adhesions after cardiac surgery, the bioabsorbable PLA membrane might serve as a promising substitute for the pericardium, which proved to be safe and efficacious in our study.