Degradable hydrogel for retinal tamponade

项目摘要 视网膜疾病是使人衰弱的视力丧失的常见原因。对于许多这些条件，包括视网膜 视网膜脱离和黄斑裂孔，唯一的治疗方法就是手术。所有这些手术的第一步是玻璃体切除术， 通过眼睛前部的小孔去除玻璃体凝胶的过程。每年110万 玻璃体切除术在全球范围内进行，仅在美国就进行了300，000例，并且在大多数情况下， 需要将视网膜填塞物留在眼中以维持视网膜上的压力并帮助愈合。全球 2013年视网膜填塞市场最近的价值为6450万美元，预计将达到7750万美元 到2020年，亿。 现有技术使用可膨胀气体或硅油来在植入期间对视网膜施加压力。 愈合（填塞）。然而，这两种方法都不是理想的，因此为了解决这些缺陷， 一项提案开发了一种新型水凝胶，该水凝胶使用两种常见的合成生物医学聚合物，即改性的 聚（乙烯醇）和聚（乙二醇）的形式，创造了一个独特的水凝胶系统，是非常低的 液体形式的粘度，但随后在眼中通过交联形成胶凝。该制剂允许注射 通过小的手术口，随后进行体内扩张，导致360度视网膜填塞。这种独特 该制剂将消除对术后患者定位的需要。此外，这种水凝胶降解 在降解为小分子之前， 容易从眼睛中清除，因此不需要随后的手术来移除填塞物 剂由此产生的设备将更患者友好，几乎没有屈光问题，并且能够 患者完全移动的。因此，患者依从性将得到改善。此外，它还将作为一个 仅在通过降解过程自然清除之前的手术相关时间段内进行填塞 降低成本和改善结果。

Project Summary Retinal disorders are a common cause of debilitating vision loss. For many of these conditions, including retinal detachments and macular holes, the only treatment is surgery. The first step of all such surgeries is vitrectomy, the process of removing the vitreous gel through tiny ports in the front of the eye. Each year, 1.1 million vitrectomies are performed globally with 300,000 performed in the US alone, and in the majority of these cases a retinal tamponade is required to be left in the eye to maintain pressure on the retina and aid healing. The global retinal tamponade market was recently valued at USD $64.5 million in 2013 and is predicted to reach USD $77.5 million by 2020. The current state of the art uses either an expansile gas, or a silicone oil to exert pressure on the retina during healing (tamponade). However, neither method is ideal and therefore to address these deficiencies, this proposal develops a novel hydrogel that uses two common synthetic biomedical polymers, namely a modified poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(ethylene glycol) in a form that creates a unique hydrogel system that is very low viscosity in liquid form but then gels through crosslink formation in the eye. This formulation allows for injection through small surgical ports followed by in vivo expansion resulting in 360-degree retinal tamponade. This unique formulation will eliminate the need for post-operative patient positioning. Additionally, this hydrogel degrades over the period of 3-5 weeks providing a temporary tamponade force before degrading to small molecules that are readily cleared from the eye, thus removing the need for subsequent surgeries to remove the tamponade agent. The resulting device will be more patient friendly with almost no refractive issues and the ability for the patient to be fully mobile. Patient compliance will therefore be improved. In addition, it will also act as a tamponade only for the surgically relevant period of time before clearing naturally through a degradation process reducing costs and improving outcomes.