What Are Biodegradable Medical Devices?

What are biodegradable medical devices? They are the next hot medical device, one that only lasts a few months and then disappears without surgery or long-term side effects. Researchers around the globe are using new polymers and metals to design biodegradable medical devices. The devices do their jobs as long as needed and then dissolve, leaving the newly repaired tissue able to function normally.

Dr. Y. Yun at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College (NACT) is using a combination LumeGen (flow/pressure) and CartiGen (compression) bioreactor system and an ElectroPuls™ E3000 to evaluate new biodegradable materials, design new components, and fatigue test new medical devices. He believes that biodegradable metal (magnesium) devices are greatly affected by their application in the human body; therefore, they should be tested in an environment that mimics this environment. Dr. Yun will be using Instron LumeGen system to evaluate biodegradable stents under physiologic pressure and flow conditions and the CartiGen to evaluate biodegradable screws under physiologic loading conditions. This in vitro test bed provides an alternative in vivo (animal testing) in which the experimental design is often limited due to high cost and results in inconclusive data. Dr. Yun hopes to reduce the gap between in vitro and in vivo testing with the Instron solutions.