A University of Rhode Island researcher is using techniques from textile science that in the near future could reduce many of the problems associated with artificial arteries. Martin Bide, URI professor of textiles, fashion merchandising and design, has been working with a team of vascular surgeons at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for the past 10 years on a range of issues with the artificial arteries. Bide said surgeons unable to use a vein from a patient who needs heart surgery look to artificial materials like polyester for solutions. However, these materials are prone to complications like rejection, clot formation and infection. Bide said artificial arteries work well, but doctors are calling on scientists like him to find ways to fight infection when the arteries are implanted and avoid clot formation later on.
Infection remains a problem in the cleanest of hospitals.
Many have tried to make these materials infection-resistant, Bide said, but any surface antibiotic is quickly lost in the body. Previous attempts to prolong infection resistance rely on the introduction of additional binding agents. However, Bide introduced techniques from textile dyeing and discovered means of using antibiotics as dyes. The antibiotic is held in polyester arteries without the use of binding agents. More recently, the researchers have turned their attention to other materials, and have discovered that alternative dyeing methods can do the same thing for polyurethane, another widely used medical material.