[Development of Medical Materials and Infection]

Surgery has the possibility to cause infections. Surgical site infection(SSI)is a common complication of various surgical procedures. On the other hand, allogeneic tissue-derived material-induced infections, such as transfusion-related hepatitis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are rare but occur. The risk of surgery-related infections needs to be reduced because such infections not only affect morbidity and mortality but also lead to increased medical costs and longer hospitalization. Recently, various allogeneic and synthetic medical materials have been developed, and many types of materials have been used in daily neurosurgical procedures. Some synthetic materials have been advertised to have an SSI-preventive effect. Technology has also been developed to minimize the infectivity of allogeneic materials. In this paper, we introduce some information focused on the infectivity of fibrin glue and DuraGen^® and the SSI-preventive effect of Surgicel^® and antimicrobial sutures.