An LFPlus universal materials testing instrument from Lloyd has been used in a research project conducted at University Hospital in Belgium into the properties of glue used in surgical procedures.
The study, which has been published in a paper in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A (2007) 86A 1106-1112, set out to investigate the mechanical and chemical characteristics of an autologous surgical glue produced from human or canine plasma compared to Bioglue, a surgical glue used for vascular repair and Tissucol Duo, a fibrin sealant.
Autologous surgical glues are of great interest, since they have better mechanical strength than fibrin sealants, yet do not have the toxicity or possibility for immune reactions of glues used for vascular repair.
They therefore have the potential to be used in all types of surgery.
The LFPlus was operated under computer control using Nexygenplus materials test and control software.
Tensile test measurements on the autologous glues and the control samples were carried out using the built-in 'pull to break' routine, while elasticity measurements were made using the built-in 'push to maximum load' test program.
Maarten Debrouwere at Analis NV advised on the best design of experiments and test setup for the materials testing experiments, which were carried out by Filip De Somer at the University Hospital, Ghent.
Joris Delanghe, Pamela Somers and Guido Van Nooten are the other joint authors of the paper.
