The
developers of medical devices evaluate the biocompatibility
of their device prior to FDA’s review and subsequent introduction
to the market. Chemical characterization, described in ISO 10993-18:2020,
can generate information for toxicological risk assessment and is
an alternative approach for addressing some biocompatibility end points
(e.g., systemic toxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive/developmental
toxicity) that can reduce the time and cost of testing and the need
for animal testing. Additionally, chemical characterization can be
used to determine whether modifications to the materials and manufacturing
processes alter the chemistry of a patient-contacting device to an
extent that could impact device safety. Extractables testing is one
approach to chemical characterization that employs combinations of
non-targeted analysis, non-targeted screening, and/or targeted analysis
to establish the identities and quantities of the various chemical
constituents that can be released from a device. Due to the difficulty
in obtaining a priori information on all the constituents
in finished devices, information generation strategies in the form
of analytical chemistry testing are often used. Identified and quantified
extractables are then assessed using toxicological risk assessment
approaches to determine if reported quantities are sufficiently low
to overcome the need for further chemical analysis, biological evaluation
of select end points, or risk control. For extractables studies to
be useful as a screening tool, comprehensive and reliable non-targeted
methods are needed. Although non-targeted methods have been adopted
by many laboratories, they are laboratory-specific and require expensive
analytical instruments and advanced technical expertise to perform.
In this Perspective, we describe the elements of extractables studies
and provide an overview of the current practices, identified gaps,
and emerging practices that may be adopted on a wider scale in the
future. This Perspective is outlined according to the steps of an
extractables study: information gathering, extraction, extract sample
processing, system selection, qualification, quantification, and identification.