Depending on the concentration of the drug and/or the method of administration, drugs could be used in various ways. To take full advantage of the drug beneficial properties in oral medical interventions but also in other types of surgery, like plastic surgery, general surgery, or gynecological surgery, the drug concentration as well as the administration method itself will depend on the wound, type of surgery, and severity of the postoperative pain which can be very different. Generally, the local administration methods are recommended. Piroxicam, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) of the oxicam class, is generally used to relieve the symptoms of pain and inflammation. Starting from the idea of the special benefit of the interference between collagen-based materials and drug beneficial properties, our work was focused on the synthesis and characterization of new collagen-piroxicam materials. These new collagen-based materials present a good water absorption, and the piroxicam release suggests a biphasic drug release profile whereas the obtained values for the release exponent revealed a complex release mechanism including swelling, diffusion, and erosion.

We report in this paper the synthesis and characterization of a new collagen-based material. This material was obtained in a spongy form and was functionalized with an antibiotic, ciprofloxacin. The targeted applications of these kind of materials concern the post-operative prophylaxis. The in vitro tests (antimicrobial, cytotoxic, drug release) showed that sponges with a concentration of 0.75 g of ciprofloxacin per gram of collagen could be beneficial for the desired applications.