The undesirable movement of bodily fluids such as blood as a result of injury, disease or during surgery is often a major concern. Substantial loss of blood can cause multiple problems for the patient and the presence of blood or other bodily fluids in undesirable locations can be detrimental to normal tissue or interfere with the surgeon's ability to view the operative field. Often surgery is delayed while blood is removed and the bleeding is brought under control. Bleeding can be problematic even during minimally invasive surgery (e.g., laparoscopic surgery). In some instances, surgeons must convert these preferred procedures into traditional open surgeries if bleeding cannot be adequately controlled.
Options for minimizing or controlling the movement of bodily fluids in any of these settings are limited and typically include the application of pressure, either directly to a vessel or to the body external to the vessel. Pressure must be maintained until the bleeding is under control. Other physical methods include the use of clamps, clips, plugs, sponges, or sutures. These devices have limited efficacy, and they can be cumbersome to apply, particularly if there are many small bleeding vessels. Use of heat to coagulate blood and cauterize bleeding vessels is widely used during surgery, but it is a destructive process that can result in damage to tissue.
Surgical meshes made from nanostructures have been developed as a means to provide mechanical support during surgical procedures. Meshes formed of woven and non-woven scaffolds including a variety of natural and non-natural polymers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,568,637; U.S. Pat. No. 7,700,721; U.S. Pat. No. 8,039,258; U.S. Pat. No. 7,704,740; U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,846; U.S. Pat. No. 8,512,728; as well as Dhan, et al., Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine, 8, pp. 1242-1262 (2012); Nguyen and Lee, Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater., 13, 035002 (11 pp) (2012); Ahmad, et al., Carbohydrate Polymers, V89 (1), pp. 222-229 (2012); and Brun, et al., Acta Biomaterialia, 7, pp. 2526-2532 (2011).
However, there remains a need for surgical meshes that can be used for mechanical support and at same time provide a barrier to the movement of bodily fluids.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide compositions for preventing the movement of bodily fluids.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods and compositions for providing tissue-type specific hemostatic meshes.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide methods and compositions for tissue integration and attachment.