Surgical Tissue Damage
Internal tissue damage is inevitable in surgery
Internal tissue healing and tissue restoration is a primary clinical goal in all surgical procedures. A majority of surgical procedures involve disruption of internal tissue and creation of tissue planes, resulting in significant short and long‑term complications.
Damage may include:
Tissue injury and separation
Dead space created in tissue planes
Severing of arteries, veins, and nerves
Lymphatic disruption
Post-surgical wound control is difficult to achieve
As with any wound or injured tissue, gaining control of the affected area is critical to the body’s healing process. Wound control involves fluid removal or absorption, allowing disrupted tissue to come back together, and maintaining an environment for cells to grow and healing to begin. Surgeons are able to gain control of incisional and other surface wounds with sutures, dressings, compression bandages, and other apparatus. However, the inabilty to effectively control injured tissue on the inside of the body in order to facilitate tissue restoration has long been viewed as the Achilles heel of surgery.
Current methods to address post-surgical wound control have not demonstrated meaningful or consistent success. Today’s care options – drains, sutures, glues – are deficient in multiple key areas.
Single-channel drains
Rely on gravity or hand pumps, provide limited and inconsistent fluid evacuation.
Sutures
(layered, mattress or quilting)
Provide no fluid evacuation capabilities, are tedious in the OR, and commonly fail.
Surgical glues
Are costly, have no fluid evacuation capabilities, and have not demonstrated success.