New bioabsorbable pledgets and non-woven fabrics made from polyglycolide (PGA) for pulmonary surgery: clinical experience.

A new type of bioabsorbable pledget made from non-woven fabric of polyglycolide (PGA) fibers has been developed. After the in vivo implantation test using dogs, samples were subject to clinical evaluations in pulmonary operations in four hospitals. The total number of trial cases was 50; in 11 cases pledgets were used for repair of the bronchus and in 39 cases for lung fistulas or defects of the pleurae. Compared with the conventional nonabsorbable pledgets, these PGA pledgets showed satisfactory results. In particular, for cases of emphysematous pulmonary diseases the application of the PGA pledgets and non-woven fabrics made the post-operative air-leakage duration short. In all these 50 cases neither side effect nor complication was observed. This evaluation suggests that PGA pledgets and non-woven fabric are an acceptable and even better alternative to conventional nonabsorbable pledgets for the pulmonary surgery.