Estudo das propriedades de micropartículas de poli(Acetato de vinila-co-metacrilato de metila) usadas em procedimentos de embolização vascular

Abstract

The use of polymers in medical applications has grown significantly in the past few years, specially in vascular embolization procedures. The challenge is to develop embolic agents with suitable morphological properties in order to make the application safer and reproducible. In this context, the particle size plays a significant role in vascular embolization performance, since off-spec particle diameters may constitute a problem not only for physicians but also for patients. Additionally, the particle size distribution must be controlled in order to avoid the production of large amounts of off-spec material, increasing the process costs. In the present work, the influence of dispersion techniques previously described in literature on properties of polymer particles was evaluated, specially in respect to average particle sizes and particle size distributions. The effects of the analyzed techniques were evaluated independently and combined with other techniques in order to provide an optimum condition, which must be sufficiently close to the desired properties for vascular embolization procedures. Moreover, the hydrolysis of particles were also performed, showing that the extention of the reaction is governed by PMMA composition in the copolymer.