Hydrogel seals surgical sutures in the stomach and intestines

Alexandre Anthis has invented AnastoSEAL, a hydrogel patch for surgical sutures in the gastrointestinal tract. With this, he is tackling an issue that has previously remained unsolved: surgeons can never be certain whether surgical sutures used in routine procedures on the stomach or intestines are leakproof. If this is not the case, a high fever tends to be the first indication of blood poisoning, often days later. In contrast, Anthis’s hydrogel patch fully seals surgical sutures. According to the press release from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), protein-based, self-adhesive patches are already used in other medical areas. However, unlike the hydrogel patch, these cannot withstand leaking digestive juices for long.

Anthis has also embedded chemical sensor elements into the hydrogel. These react either to changes in the pH value caused by leaking gastric acid or certain intestinal enzymes. They can show whether the suture site is leaking within 15 minutes to three hours.

Anthis states: “I would never have thought it would still be an issue, especially in wealthy industrialized countries.” The market potential is huge: in Switzerland alone, 120,000 individuals undergo gastrointestinal surgery each year according to the information provided. Worldwide, this figure is 14 million. The new intestinal patch is also expected to “massively cut costs throughout the healthcare system”.

The hydrogel solution was developed during Anthis’s doctoral work and earned him entry into the Forbes “30 under 30” list for Europe 2022. He will now bring the project to market maturity as an ETH Pioneer Fellow. Anthis plans to establish a company called Veltist as a spin-off from ETH and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) at the end of 2022.