Advance in Biodegradable Medical Devices

Dear Colleagues,

The medical devices surgically implanted worldwide are reaching into the millions per year and becoming an essential part of modern medicine. These devices perform diagnostic, therapeutic, or regenerative functions in different clinical applications, such as tissue repair, controlled drug delivery, and vital-sign monitoring. Yet the permanent devices associated with health risks in the long-term may require secondary surgery for its removal. By designing medical devices to be resorbed and eliminated by the body after completing their temporary functions, the associated long-term side effects are avoided. These biodegradable medical devices, ranging from tissue repair, drug delivery, and biodegradable electronic devices, may incorporate natural and synthetic polymers and hydrolysable metals. After their implantation, various degradation mechanisms act on these materials to generate degradation products easily resorbed by the body.

Designing a biodegradable implant device implies assuring the mechanical compatibility between the material and the host tissue, and the biocompatibility of degradation products generated during biodegradation in the host biological system. It remains quite challenging to balance the mechanical compatibility and degradation rate. Better knowledge of the interaction between the device and the host is critical to design successful devices.

Next-generation biodegradable devices will integrate multiple functions, but their design will require in-depth knowledge of the interaction between the host wound-healing mechanisms and the immune responses caused by the biomaterials and devices and their degradation products.

This Special Issue intends to cover these open questions and other related issues on biodegradable medical devices. It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a full paper, a communication, or a review article.

Prof. Dr. Rui Miranda Guedes
Prof. Dr. Maria Ascensão Lopes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• tissue engineering
• drug delivery
• wound healing
• natural biomaterials
• synthetic biomaterials
• implantable sensors