Balloons-and-glue device seals remote wounds inside the body

A new tool lets surgeons patch tissue inside the body with light-activated glue. Balloons press a glue patch against the tissue (in illustration at left, and in a pig's abdominal tissue, at right), and then ultraviolet light makes the glue sticky. After deflating the balloons, scientists can slip the tool from the body, leaving the patch in place (right panel, yellow dotted circle).

E. Roche et al/Science Translational Medicine 2015

By Meghan Rosen

September 23, 2015 at 2:00 pm

A pair of balloons and some glue can do the work of surgical stitches.

Stitches — the wound closure method of choice for millennia — can be tricky to use in tight places. So Harvard University bioengineer Ellen Roche and colleagues invented a new tool to deliver light-activated glue patches to remote spots inside the body.

The team used a catheter to thread two balloons and a glue patch through pig organs and even the hearts of living rats. Inflating the balloons pressed patch to tissue. And a fiber optic wire inside one of the balloons shined ultraviolet (UV) light on the glue to make it sticky.

The balloon-and-glue combo could offer surgeons a less invasive way to close up wounds that are more than just skin deep, researchers suggest September 23 in Science Translational Medicine.