Biodegradable polyesters medical applications

Biodegradable polyurethanes have been proposed and studied before (9-72). The difference in our study is the inclusion of a phosphoester linkage instead of the commonly used polyester component. This seems to provide more flexibility as the side chain of the phosphate or phosphonate can be varied. For controlled drug delivery applications, drugs can be linked to this site to form a pendant delivery system. Moreover, for certain medical applications, fast degradation rate is obtainable by the introduction of these hydrolyzable phosphoester bonds. With the LDI based polyurethanes, drugs or other compounds of interest can also be coupled to the ester side chain of the lysine portion. 

If the homopolymer decomposes at the fabrication temperature another approach is to make a copolymer that can be melt processed at a lower temperature. For example, polyhydroxybutyrate decomposes at the processing temperature (190°C), whereas the copolymer with valeric acid can be processed at 160°C without decomposition. These aliphatic polyesters are biodegradable and most importantly, the decomposition products are not toxic, hence their use in medical applications (e.g., sutures). 

In industry, several dendrimers are already being synthesized on a hundred kilogram scale. The hopes for effective solubilizing systems suitable for medical applications may, however, not be justified. Phenolic ether or polyamine compounds are both normally not biodegradable so that major problems are foreseeable. An alternative is the employment of hydrolysable polyesters. One such compound already reported, is the imperfectly hyperbranched dendrimer which is easily accessible via thermal self-condensation of 3,5-bis(trimethyl-siloxyjbenzoyl chloride. This one-step procedure leads to a dendritic polyester... 

Ikada, Y. Tsuji, H., Biodegradable polyesters for medical and ecological applications. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 1999, 21(3), 117-132... 

Polyesters are in widespread use in our modern life, ranging from bottles for carbonated soft drinks and water, fibers for shirts and other apparel, to the base for photographic film and recording tape. Household tradenames, such as Dacron , Fortrel , Terylene , Mylar , etc. demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of polyesters. In addition, of the biodegradable polymers employed in medical applications, polyesters are most often used. 

At the time of writing, the applications of biodegradable polymers are confined mostly to the field of agriculture, where they are used in products with limited lifetimes, such as mulch films and pellets for the controlled release of herbicides. The synthetic polyesters used in medical applications, principally polylactide and poly(lactide-co-glycolide), while claimed to be biodegradable, are degraded in the body mainly, if not entirely, by chemical hydrolysis. There is little evidence that the hydrolysis of these polyesters of a-hydroxyacids can be catalyzed by hydrolase or depolymerase enzymes. 

The polymer can be spun into an elastic yam of very fine denier. It is also claimed to exhibit good mechanical properties for molding and compares favorably with commercial polyesters and nylons. Also, polycaprolactone was reported to be used in some medical applications in biodegradable surgical sutures and postoperative support pins and splints. Similar uses are also found for two other polyesters, poly (lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid). The two polymers form from their cyclic dimers by cationic ring-opening polymerizations with the aid of Lewis acids ... 

Biodegradable polyester-based composites have been extensively studied for use in medical applications owing to their biocompatible and degradable properties in the human body. The major reported examples in biomedical products are fracture-fixation devices, such as sutures, screws, micro titration plates, and delivery systems [77]. Cellulosic nanofiber reinforced PLA composite materials... 

FUNCTIONAL POLYESTERS AND POLYAMIDES FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS... 

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