Composite PVA Hydrogels Applications in Biomedicine: Overview of Current Developments

JIMENA SOLEDAD GONZALEZ; VERA ALEJANDRA ALVAREZ

Advances in Materials Science Research

Nova Science Publishers

Lugar: New York; Año: 2013; p. 100 - 120

Nowadays, the poly (vinyl alcohol), PVA, hydrogels appear as promising materialsfor several biomedical and pharmaceutical applications such as: wound dressing, drugdelivery devices, cartilage replacement and scaffolds, among others. Generally, the plainpolymer does not fulfill all the needed requirements to these complex and specific uses.Therefore, new strategies have been employed to improve the specific requiredcharacteristics; one of them consists of adding fillers to the polymer, thus obtainingcompound hydrogels with better properties than normal hydrogels which is the focus ofthe present work. This chapter contributes to the overall information in the area ofcompound gels and brings a comprehensive study of the field of materials for biomedicalapplications.