Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 6, 2020; 8(3): 504-516
Published online Feb 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i3.504
Novel zinc alloys for biodegradable surgical staples
Hizuru Amano, Koichi Miyake, Akinari Hinoki, Kazuki Yokota, Fumie Kinoshita, Atsuko Nakazawa, Yujiro Tanaka, Yasuhiro Seto, Hiroo Uchida
Hizuru Amano, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
Koichi Miyake, Yasuhiro Seto, Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co., Ltd., Tokyo 141-0032, Japan
Akinari Hinoki, Kazuki Yokota, Yujiro Tanaka, Hiroo Uchida, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan
Fumie Kinoshita, Department of Advanced Medicine, Nagoya University Hospital, Nagoya 466-8560, Japan
Atsuko Nakazawa, Department of Clinical Research, Saitama Children’s Medical Center, Saitama 330-8777, Japan
Author contributions: Amano H, Miyake K, Hinoki A, Seto Y, and Uchida H designed and coordinated the research; Amano H, Miyake K, Hinoki A, Yokota K, and Uchida H performed the experiments; Amano H, Miyake K, Hinoki A, Kinoshita F, Nakazawa A, Tanaka Y, Seto Y, and Uchida H analyzed the data; Amano H and Miyake K wrote the paper; Amano H, Miyake K, Hinoki A, Yokota K, Tanaka Y, Seto Y, and Uchida H revised this paper critically.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This experiment was approved by the Animal Experiment Committee of Nagoya University (Approval ID: 31354).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hiroo Uchida MD, PhD, Professor, Chairman, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai, Showa, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan. hiro2013@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Received: September 3, 2019
Peer-review started: September 3, 2019
First decision: October 14, 2019
Revised: December 14, 2019
Accepted: December 21, 2019
Article in press: December 21, 2019
Published online: February 6, 2020
Processing time: 155 Days and 17.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Biodegradable Zn alloy can be prepared with adequate strength, ductility, biodegradability, and biocompatibility for use as surgical staples by alloying with ≤1 wt.% Mn or Cu and 0.1 wt.% Ti. Immersion tests reveal no gas evolution or staple fracture. In vivo, none of the Zn alloy staples cause technical failure, and all rabbits survive without complications. The degradation times are sufficient for wound healing. The degradation rate is increased under low pH conditions, suggesting staples used for resection or anastomosis of gastrointestinal tracts would degrade faster, as they are exposed to acidic digestive fluids.