Development of a Shape Memory Patch for Vascular Injuries

There is a high risk of surgical complications when treating vascular injuries such as ruptures and ischemia associated with strokes, aneurysms, and other vascular diseases. Moreover, it is still challenging to repair injuries of small diameter blood vessels through currently available therapeutic approaches because of limited access and small path length. To address these issues, a vascular patch made of biodegradable shape memory polymers (SMPs) can be deployed to the injured or ruptured site in a minimally invasive manner via a catheter or laparoscope, as shown in Figure 1. SMPs are capable of achieving minimally-invasive implantation and repair vascular injuries because they can be fixed into a temporary shape (i.e. an injectable shape for placement through a laparoscope) and recover their original, permanent shape (i.e. a ruptured tissue-specific shape) when triggered by an external stimulus such as heating above its melting temperature (T _m).