Development of an Injectable Dopamine-conjugated Poly(organophophazene) Hydrogel for Hemostasis

Abstract

Hemostatic agents are important for minimizing blood loss to improve the patient status during surgery. Most currently used hemostatic agents have limitations such as poor adhesion in the presence of biological fluids, allergic response, and inflammation. We developed a dopamine-conjugated injectable thermosensitive hydrogel to overcome these limitations through the application of a relatively safe hydrogel for biocompatibility, thermosensitivity to induce tight interactions, and mussel-induced adhesion. Dopamine as a mussel inspired material was conjugated to an injectable thermosensitive poly(organophosphazene) hydrogel, which showed the potential for application as a hemostatic agent because of its high biocompatibility, injectability, slow mass loss, easy preparation, and hemostatic effect.