CryoLife, based in Kennesaw, GA, has been awarded a U.S. patent for a new technology for filling and sealing open wounds.
The product, BioFoam, is a protein hydrogel foam with an expansion agent that quickly fills wounds when dispensed. It is currently being developed by CryoLife scientists as a hemostatic agent and tissue and organ sealant; other potential applications include vascular sealing and tissue augmentation. (The same technology is being used to develop a product called BioDisc, for spinal repair.)
And the U.S. Department of Defense wants in on the action as well. The agency, as part of its battlefield trauma program, has supplied CryoLife with funds to explore using protein hydrogel to develop a product to limit blood loss in soldiers injured in battle.
BioFoam is based on the same technology platform as CryoLife’s BioGlue Surgical Adhesive, an FDA-approved product used to control bleeding as an adjunct to standard methods of achieving hemostasis (e.g., staples and sutures) in open surgical repair of large vessels. BioGlue is also CE marked in Europe, and is approved in Canada and Australia for use in soft tissue repair. It had worldwide sales of $40 million in 2006.