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Scientists have created a polymer patch for heart surgery
An international team of scientists from Imperial College London has developed a polymer patch that will be used during heart muscle surgery, reports the journal Science Advances, which published the results of the study.
In order to compensate for the consequences of a heart attack, which is the most common disease of the heart muscle, it is necessary to restore the patient’s normal heart rhythm. The disease changes the electrical conductivity of the heart muscle, disrupts blood supply and leads to the death of part of the organ. To cope with this, a group of scientists created a special electrically conductive patch.
The patch is attached to the desired area of the muscle using a laser beam using the University of New South Wales technique. After successful fixation of the “patch”, it begins to move with the heart in its rhythm. Now the technology allows maintaining the electrical conductivity of the muscle for two weeks.
The polymer patch consists of a chitosan substrate, a polyaniline polymer and phytic acid, which regulates the conductivity of the polymer. According to scientists, the patch holds together healthy and scar tissue of the heart, despite the fact that the thickness of the patch is only 23 micrometers.
The patch was tested using laboratory experiments on rats. The results showed that the new technology improves heart function, however, according to scientists, the material is still under development.
According to the developers, previously, in the case of successful heart surgery, the dead portion of the muscle was replaced by scar tissue within a few months. However, such a recovery course most often provoked the development of arrhythmia.
Scientists hope that in the near future the patch will be useful for scientific work, in particular, for developing research on the topic of physiological changes in the body after a heart attack.
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