Photochemical Tissue Bonding for Military Medical Applications

As described in our Phase I proposal: the overall goal is to develop a complete system for micro-anastomosis of blood vessels. This involves (1) a unique laser system that uses water as the absorbing chromophore, (2) a clinically useful handpiece that is appropriate for microsurgery, (3) a novel albumin stent to support the vessel during anastomosis, (4) in vitro testing of the device to assess thermal damage, strength, and operative time. And (5) In Vivo animal testing will be added to Phase II.  The Phase II effort will continue the work toward a system for blood vessel repair in an operating room environment using a thermally- stabilized 19xxnm laser with a green LED aiming beam. The goal is to provide a manufacturable laser system with a set of albumin stents of appropriate size for a range of blood vessel sizes and a surgical procedure for their use in repairing severed blood vessels and potentially other tissue repair.   BENEFIT: It is expected that the result of this phase will be laser units that can be further refined into a viable commercial laser for operating room use to repair blood vessels. It is further expected that a process for manufacture of albumin stents will be realized and that they will be available for use in developing this product to the point of FDA approval. It is also intended that the laser system developed will have broad applications and can be applied to other wavelength lasers and hand pieces as markets are addressed in future medical applications of nLIGHT lasers.