Modified polypropylene fibres for the medical use

Abstract

The aim of the dissertation was to obtain fibres and polypropylene materials for medical use with prolonged biocidal activity. The assumption was that biocide should be able to bond to the polypropylene fibre material through chemical bonds. This creates the possibility for biocide at appropriate concentration to detach at a certain time, keeping however, its activity against pathogenic microorganisms. Due to the fact that polypropylene fibres do not have appropriate functional groups that would be able to bond the drug so as to provide them with antibacterial properties, a two-stage modification of polypropylene fibres and hernia nesh was carried out.
Modification was based on introducing carboxylic groups at the first stage into the macroparticles of the polymer through PAA grafting. At the second stage of modification, polypropylene materials that included carboxylic groups were imbued with the biocidal solution of: cephalosphorine of the third generation (Cephoperazone), amicoglicozydes (Netylmycyne) and non-organic salts - silver nitrate (each medicine individually).
Grafting reaction parameters were adjusted in such a way that a by-product would be created in slight amounts only, thus this method proves to leave practically no by-products behind and is also very economical.
There was also an in vitro microbiological evaluation carried out of the antibacterial properties and cytotoxic activity of the modified hernia nesh. It has been concluded that hernia nesh that included biocide in their structure, are highly active against standardized Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria strains, e.g. S aureus, E-coli and P. aeruginosa, without showing any cytotoxic activity at the same time. Introductory tests (in vivo) shown that modified PP nesh do not present any irritating activities.