Barriers to Prevent Tissue Adhesion

Abstract

Adhesion often occurs after surgery, especially in abdominal, gynecological, and thoracic surgeries. It can cause serious postsurgical complications such as infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and diffi culties of extensive adhesiolysis in future surgery. Antiadhesive barriers have been developed to provide physical separation between the injured site and the adjacent tissues. Since physical separation is only required during the critical time of wound healing of the damaged area, bioabsorbable polymers have been found to be appropriate. A range of adhesion barriers are commercially available in the forms of solutions, gels, and sheets. Their characteristics and limitations are discussed in this chapter. Recent investigations are also described on newly developed devices that show promising performance such as ease of handling and more effective reduction of adhesion.