Prevention of post-surgical adhesions by implementation of a crosslinked Hyaluronan film

Post-surgical adhesions occur most often after abdominal and gynecological surgeries. The causes of adhesions range from surgeon technique to inflammation. The goal of this project was to investigate the implementation of a hyaluronan (HA), cross-linked film to prevent post surgical adhesion in a rat cecum abrasion protocol. Twenty-nine rats underwent midline-laparotomies, the cecum was abraded, and a 1 cm² piece of abdominal wall was removed. Control animals did not receive the HA film placed between damaged surfaces. The animals were sacrificed after 21 days and the extent of adhesion was quantified using a scale of 0-3. The mean score of the control animals was 0.82 and the HA film was 0.25. In this ongoing study, the HA films show potential in abdominal adhesion prevention.