Hydrogels with Adhesive Properties for Prevention and Treatment of Periprosthetic Infection

The work studied the influence of technological processes for producing hydrogels based on polyvinylpyrrolidone on their adhesive properties to metal implants made of medical NiTi with the aim of developing a medical product for prevention and treatment of periprosthetic infections. In the present study, the mechanisms of formation of hydrogels under various production conditions have been studied using ATR IR spectroscopy. Using the method of differential scanning calorimetry, changes in the phase transitions of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were studied in order to assess the adhesive properties of hydrogels, which was carried out by determining the contact angle of wetting. Based on the results of the study, mechanisms for cross linking of PVP have been proposed depending on the processing method. It has been revealed that the effect of high temperature on PVP leads to a slightly denser cross linking than the effect of γ irradiation; the values of the M_g index are within the same order of magnitude (M_g(PVP–TT) = 1.2 × 10⁴, M_g(PVP–γ) = 1.0 × 10⁴). Hydrogels wet metal surfaces made of medical NiTi well; their adhesive properties do not depend on differences in the production technologies.