Not enough exercise, an unhealthy diet: Kidney stones develop when urine contains too many insoluble compounds and are now one of the most common diseases worldwide. The ailment annually affects 1.2 million people in Germany alone. The stones are broken up and taken out via endoscopic surgery. Now it’s possible to remove even the tiniest residual fragments. The solution: a biocompatible medical adhesive.
In this MEDICA.de interview, Dr. Grunwald talks about the new adhesive and its marketability and reveals its other possible applications.
Dr. Grunwald, the GO-Bio project "mediNiK" has successfully developed a medical adhesive for the effective removal of residual kidney stone fragments. What type of adhesive is this?
Dr. Ingo Grunwald: The abbreviation stands for "medical kidney stone adhesive" (German: Medizinischer Nierensteinklebstoff). It is a plant-based sugar polymer, which is commonly known as a food additive. This was in turn used to produce a hydrogel system that can be used to remove residual kidney stone fragments.
Kidney stones have always been removed by using endoscopic laser or shock wave lithotripsy. How exactly is the adhesive used?
Grunwald: These therapies are still being used. And that's a good thing. This is the procedure: During ureterorenoscopy, the doctor inserts an endoscope through the urinary tract to find the kidney stones. If a stone is too big in size (> 5mm), it must be broken up before removal. Whenever possible, any residual fragments are removed from the kidney with an extractor tool, although it is definitely possible that tiny residual fragments stay behind because the doctor is unable to take them out. They are simply too small to be gripped with conventional extractor tools. An urologist experienced this issue and called me. He wondered if there is a system that might solve this problem. The list of requirements for it was long: it has to harden underwater, must be quick to use and biocompatible, and it should not stick to the extractor tools – unfortunately, this wasn’t something that was available off-the-shelf. ...
Read the complete interview with Dr. Ingo Grundwald at MEDICA-tradefair.com!