Kenigen Manikion

Postoperative pain management (POPM) remains a major clinical challenge despite its vital importance in reducing surgical stress, enabling early mobilization, and limiting postoperative complications. Conventional analgesic strategies are often constrained by short drug half-lives, repeated dosing requirements, systemic adverse effects, and the risk of opioid-related toxicity or dependence. These limitations suggest that the mode of drug delivery, in addition to drug selection itself, is a critical determinant of therapeutic performance. In this context, electrospun fibrous meshes represent a promising platform for localized and sustained analgesic delivery. Their high surface-area-to-volume ratio, tuneable porosity, broad polymer compatibility, and capacity to incorporate single or multiple bioactive agents make them attractive candidates for postoperative applications. This review summarizes recent advances in electrospun meshes for POPM, with particular emphasis on fabrication strategies, polymer selection, drug incorporation approaches, drug-release behaviour, biological performance, and translational challenges.

Hydrogel membranes can offer a cutting-edge solution for abdominal hernia treatment. By combining favorable mechanical parameters, tissue integration, and the potential for targeted drug delivery, hydrogels are a promising alternative therapeutic option. The current review examines the application of hydrogel materials composed of synthetic and biological polymers, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), gelatine, and silk fibroin, in the context of hernia repair. Overall, this review highlights the current issues and prospects of hydrogel membranes as viable alternatives to the conventional hernia meshes. The emphasis is placed on the applicability of these hydrogels as components of bilayer systems and standalone materials. According to our research, hydrogel membranes exhibit several advantageous features relevant to hernia repair, such as a controlled inflammatory reaction, tissue integration, anti-adhesive-, and even thermoresponsive properties. Nevertheless, despite significant advancements in material science, the potential of hydrogel membranes seems neglected. Bilayer constructs have not transitioned to clinical trials, whereas standalone membranes seem unreliable due to the lack of comprehensive mechanical characterization and long-term in vivo experiments.

Poly(vinyl-alcohol) hydrogels have already been successfully utilised as drug carrier systems and tissue engineering scaffolds. However, lacking mechanical strength and suturability hinders any prospects for clinical and surgical applications. The objective of this work was to fabricate mechanically robust PVA membranes, which could also withstand surgical manipulation and suturing. Electrospun membranes and control hydrogels were produced with 61 kDa PVA. Using a high-speed rotating cylindrical collector, we achieved fibre alignment (fibre diameter: 300 ± 50 nm). Subsequently, we created multilayered samples with different orientations to achieve multidirectional reinforcement. Finally, utilising glutaraldehyde as a cross-linker, we created insoluble fibrous-hydrogel membranes. Mechanical studies were performed, confirming a fourfold increase in the specific loading capacities (from 0.21 to 0.84 Nm²/g) in the case of the monolayer samples. The multilayered membranes exhibited increased resistance from both horizontal and vertical directions, which varies according to the specific arrangement. Finally, the cross-linked fibrous hydrogel samples not only exhibited specific loading capacities significantly higher than their counterpart bulk hydrogels but successfully withstood suturing. Although cross-linking optimisation and animal experiments are required, these membranes have great prospects as alternatives to current surgical meshes, while the methodology could also be applied in other systems as well.