Laparoscopic electrospinning for in situ hemostasis in minimally invasive operation

In situ deposition of nanofibers onto living organs could improve the adhesion between nanofiber membranes and organs and thus accelerate the hemostatic effect. Electrospinning is preferable over blow spinning for in situ hemostasis, as blow spinning may damage the wound because of the strong airflow and introduces a recoil phenomenon when the airflow encounters the organ that fibers would deposit onto the surrounding organs causing tissue adhesion. Minimally invasive surgery has increased recently and become the first choice for patients due to its minimal trauma and slight pain. Herein, we combine in situ electrospinning with minimally invasive surgery and show that electrospun nanofibers can be fabricated through the laparoscope and directly deposited onto the living organ. A cone converging structure was also introduced in this laparoscopic electrospinning, which can more precisely deposit nanofibers and decrease the deposition area of the nanofiber membrane without thickening the fiber diameter. During a minimally invasive surgery performed on pigs, this laparoscopic electrospinning technique exhibited rapid hemostasis, less postoperative inflammatory responses and faster recovery than traditional hemostasis methods. The hemostasis time of electrospinning method was approximately 5 s, which was faster than that of the suture group at 3 min and smear group at 14 s. The electrospun membrane thickness was approximately 300 μm, which was thinner than that of the smearing group at approximately 1 mm. The deposition area of the electrospun NOCA membrane can also be finely tuned by the cone converging structure and electrospinning distance, and it is superior to the smear method because the operation is performed through a long laparoscopic tube (~37 cm), which minimizes the effect of hand shaking on targeting the wound site.