Novel adhesion device for living tissue

Backgrand: Various devices for tissue hemostasis, blood coagulation and dissection have been reported for use in surgical procedures. However, there are no reports to date describing a device that is specifi cally designed for tissue adhesion. In this research, a novel device for tissue adhesion was constructed and its effectiveness was evaluated.Method: We developed the prototype adhesive device (new device) build from AE piezo actuator and power supply and function generator. Tissue adhesion testing was performed on the thin slices of porcine aorta adhered to porcine pericardia using the new device,Harmonic Scalpel® and bipolar electric scalpel. Porcine aortic tissue slices 15 mm long, 3.5 mm wide and 100 - 150 μm thick were prepared. Following adhesion, samples were examined by an adhesion strength test employing a mechanical testing machin, along with histological evaluation of the tissues.Results: Temperature of 1 mm-thick PTFE sheet was heated to 140°C in 5 seconds by vibration of the piezo actuator. Under these same conditions, only the new device was able to adhere pericardia and aortic tissues. In vivo study, tissue reaction experiments utilizing subcutaneous implantation showed that tissues adhered using high energy device such as Harmonic Scalpel® and bipolar electronic scalpel had a strong tendency to cause infl ammation in surrounding tissues.Conclusion: The device developed in this study enabled tissue adhesion by employing heat generation from loss modulus of polymer, vibration in the direction of clamping and pressure. This device can be applied to the tissues, for which conventional devices such as the electronic scalpel and harmonic scalpel have been unsuccessful.