Postoperative Peritoneal Adhesions Prophylaxy Using Collagen-Based Biomaterials

Peritoneal adhesion occurs after abdominal, gynecological, and thoracic surgeries, determining important postsurgical complications such as infertility, chronic pelvic pain and intestinal obstruction, with difficulties of extensive adhesiolysis in future surgery. Antiadhesive barrier methods, providing physical separation between the injured site and the adjacent tissues, have been developed. Taking into account the fact that physical separation is only required during the critical time of wound healing of the damaged area, bioabsorbable polymers, available in the forms of solutions, gels, and sheets, have proved to be efficient. The study presents the characteristics and limitations of the currently available antiadhesive biomaterials, mentioning the recent investigations regarding the use of collagen-based biomaterial, that show promising performance, such as ease of handling and more effective reduction of adhesion.