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Scientists use light to expand implants, reducing child heart surgeries | Blue light has enough energy to start the reaction while remaining safe for living tissues.
Researchers made the shunt by creating new polymers for a hydrogel that could form new crosslinks and expand the shunt's inner diameter.
Rodell collaborated with his Drexel colleagues, Amy Throckmorton and Kara Spiller, who had previously designed an expandable prototype to potentially replace the most commonly used shunt. For their new device, Rodell and his team, led by graduate student Akari Seiner, are utilizing a fiber-optic catheter—a long, slender tube with a light-emitting tip. Additionally, they evaluated how blood cells and vessels reacted to the modified shunt and found no signs of clot formation, inflammation, or other potential health risks associated with the implanted device.
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