Yoshito Ikada – författare

Tissue engineering is an emerging interdisciplinary field, occupying a major position in the regenerative medicine that aims at restoring lost or damaged tissues and organs with use of cells. Regenerative medicine includes cellular therapy and tissue engineering. In general, the former treats patients by cell infusion alone, while tissue engineering needs biomaterials and growth factors in addition to cells. Biomaterials function in tissue engineering as the scaffold or template for cells to proliferate, differentiate, and produce matrices. Tissue Engineering focuses on the fundamentals (biomaterials, scaffolds, cell cultures, bioreactors, animal models etc.), recent animal and human trials, and future prospects regarding tissue engineering.

Almost twenty years have passed since the advent of the tissue engineering, whicht uses cells, scaffolds, and growth factors for regeneration of neotissues. The number of investigations on tissue engineering is still increasing tremendously. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the number of reports describing clinical trials of tissue engineering will remain very limited. Even the studies that apply tissue engineering research to large animals have not been performed yet on a large scale. The major objective of this book is to address this question from a science and technology point of view, and to describe the principles of basic technologies that have currently been developed by numerous research groups.

Biomaterials for Surgical Operation offers a review of the latest advances made in developing bioabsorbable devices for surgical operations which include surgical adhesives (sealants), barriers for the prevention of tissue adhesion, polymers for fractured bone fixation, growth factors for the promotion of wound healing, and sutures. Over the years, many descriptions of biomaterials have appeared in academic journals and books, but most of them have been devoted to limited clinical areas. This is in marked contrast with this volume which covers a wide range of bioabsorbable devices used in surgery from a practical point of view. The currently applied polymeric devices are critical in surgery, but all involve serious problems due to their poor performance. For instance, fibrin glue, the most widely used surgical sealant, can produce only a weak gel with low adhesive strength to tissues, accentuating the limited effectiveness of current treatment options. Likewise, the currently available barrier membranes cannot fully prevent tissue adhesion at the acceptable level and are, moreover, not easy to handle with endoscopes due to their poor mechanical properties.

Biomaterials for Surgical Operation is aimed at those who are interested in expanding their knowledge of how the problems associated with the currently used devices for surgical operation can be solved. It primarily focuses on the absorbable biomaterials which are the main components of these medical devices.