For over 5,000 years, wounds have been closed with a needle and thread and then left to heal naturally. As a press release explains, researchers at the St.Gallen-based Particles Biology Interactions laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and the Nanoparticle Systems Engineering Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have developed a method of fusing the sides of a wound using lasers.
This soldering process involves temperature regulation in real time. The team led by Inge Herrmann and Oscar Cipolato developed a bonding agent with metallic and ceramic nanoparticles and used nanothermometry to control the temperature. According to the press release, the method will be particularly suitable for use in minimally invasive surgery. In a further step, the laser light will be replaced with gentler infrared light. “If medically approved IR lamps were applied, the innovative soldering technology could be used in conventional operating rooms without additional laser protection measures,” says Empa researcher Inge Herrmann.
