Patent ID: 6932974

Claim:
A method of preventing adhesion formation between tissues in an animal comprising placing a sterile adhesion prevention barrier between the tissues of the animal where the adhesion to be prevented, wherein the sterile adhesion prevention barrier comprises a polyoxaester having a first divalent repeating unit of formula IA: [O—C(O)—C(R 1 )(R 2 )—O—R 3 —O—C(R′ 1 )(R′ 2 )—C(O)—] IA and a second repeating unit selected from the group of formulas consisting of: [—O—R 4 —] A , II [—O—R 5 —C(O)—] B , III ([—O—R 5 —C(O)] P —O—) L G XI and combinations thereof wherein R 1 , R′ 1 , R 2 and R′ 2 are independently hydrogen or an alkyl group containing 1 to 8 carbon atoms; R 3 is an alkylene unit containing from 2 to 12 carbon atoms or is an oxyalkylene group of the following formula: —[(CH 2 ) C —O—] D —(CH 2 ) E — IV wherein C is an integer in the range of from 2 to about 5, D is an integer in the range of from about 0 to about 2,000, and E is an integer in the range of from about 2 to about 5, except when D is zero, in which case E will be an integer from 2 to 12; R 4 is an alkylene unit containing from 2 to 8 carbon atoms ; A is an integer in the range of from 1 to 2,000; R 5 is selected from the group consisting of —C(R 6 )(R 7 )—, —(CH 2 ) 3 —O—, —CH 2 —CH 2 —O—CH 2 —, —CR 8 H—CH 2 —, —(CH 2 ) 5 —, —(CH 2 ) F —O—C(O)— and —(CH 2 ) F —C(O)—CH 2 —; R 6 and R 7 are independently hydrogen or an alkyl containing from 1 to 8 carbon atoms; R 8 is hydrogen or methyl; F is an integer in the range of from 2 to 6; B is an integer in the range of from 1 to n such that the number average molecular weight of formula III is less than about 200,000; P is an integer in the range of from 1 to m such that the number average molecular weight of formula XI is less than about 1,000,000; G represents the residue minus from 1 to L hydrogen atoms from the hydroxyl groups of an alcohol previously containing from 1 to about 200 hydroxyl groups; and L is an integer from about 1 to about 200.