MIT engineers develop surgical ‘duct tape’ for sutures and operations

Strong, flexible, and biocompatible

Duct tapes have been famed as a go-to weapon to seal leakages, patch holes, pack boxes, and repair damaged surfaces. Engineers and researchers from MIT draw from this source to fuel the development of their surgical duct tape, a strong, flexible, and biocompatible sticky patch that can be easily and quickly applied to biological tissues and organs to help seal tears and wounds.

The surgical tape reinvents the MIT research team’s 2019 design of a double-sided tape, an early iteration designed to join two wet surfaces together. The new batch retains the adhesive made from polyacrylic acid, an absorbent material found in diapers that absorbs moisture when in contact with a wet surface or tissue.

The researchers then mixed in NHS esters, chemical compounds that can bind with proteins in the tissue to form stronger bonds. They reinforced the adhesive with gelatin or chitosan — natural ingredients that kept the tape’s shape.

images from MIT and the research team

Off-the-shelf product

‘We think this surgical tape is a good base technology to be made into an actual, off-the-shelf product,’ says Hyunwoo Yuk, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. ‘Surgeons could use it as they use duct tape in the nonsurgical world. It doesn’t need any preparation or prior step. Just take it out, open, and use.’ As a duct tape, the surgical apparatus targets to seal defects in the gastrointestinal tract with its present formulation of being sticky on one side while smooth on the other.

The team aspires to make the surgical duct tape an upgraded solution for a speedy recovery. ‘We are studying a fundamental mechanics problem, adhesion, in an extremely challenging environment, inside the body. There are millions of surgeries worldwide a year to repair gastrointestinal defects, and the leakage rate is up to 20 percent in high-risk patients,’ says Xuanhe Zhao, a project supervisor and co-corresponding author of the research, who sees this tape as a problem-solver that could potentially save thousands of lives.

MIT engineers develop surgical ‘duct tape’ for sutures and operations

A series of tests

After a number of experiments, the MIT team has proved that the tape can bond tars and punctures in the colon, stomach, and intestines of various animal models they used. The adhesive binds strongly to tissues within several seconds and holds for over a month, and the flexibility of the material allows the expansion and contraction of the functioning organ as it heals. Once an injury is fully healed, the patch gradually degrades without causing inflammation or sticking to surrounding tissues.

The team sees a bright outlook for the surgical sticky patch, believing it will be stocked in operating rooms in the future and used as a fast and safe alternative or reinforcement to hand-sewn sutures to repair leaks and tears in the gut and other biological tissues.

transparent duct tape for sutures and operations