Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Lumbar disc herniation is a common cause for lower back pain and reason for spinal surgery. Inevitably, patients will feel acute post-operative pain following surgery, thus local analgesics are given to patients after the surgery to alleviate pain. Existing drug delivery methods are limited by large doses, quick clearance rate from the injury site, short pain-relief period and multiple injections. As a result, there is an unmet need for a local, controlled and sustained drug delivery system following spine surgery. We propose to investigate a novel biomaterial to prolong the delivery of drugs to the local injury site. The drug-loaded hydrogel was characterized in terms of its release profile (where different factors were considered to prolong the release of the drug), storage modulus and swelling ratio. Behavioural tests and a pharmacokinetic study were conducted to determine the effects of the drug-loaded hydrogel in vivo.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Jessica Wan-Yan Ngai
Language: English
Subfield: Biomaterials
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3167436649