An Injury-Conforming Dual-Layer Lung Sealant

Persistent pulmonary air leaks contribute to prolonged hospitalization. While existing hydrogel-based sealants can be used to stop air leaks, they may lack the high elasticity needed to accommodate lung deformation and mechanical cohesion. We developed an injury-conforming sealant with an adhesion layer underneath a customized bioprinted reinforcement layer. The leak- and rupture-pressure tests demonstrated substantial improvement in adhesive and cohesive strengths of the dual-layer sealant compared to single-layer control. We also developed a computer vision-guided tracking method to quantitatively assess sealant-tissue compliance during ventilation in ex vivo swine lungs. When used to repair air leaks on ventilated swine lungs, the sealant maintained structural integrity during cyclic ventilation, exhibiting a dynamic strain of 13.4% ± 0.8% relative to 19.7% ± 0.3% in the underlying tissue. The sealant repaired the leak and restored peak-inspiratory pressure (PIP) to baseline levels (PIPNative: 30.0 ± 0.8 cmH2O; PIPInjured: 25.3 ± 0.6 cmH2O; PIPSealed: 29.5 ± 1.3 cmH2O). Collectively, our findings demonstrate that the injury-conforming dual-layer sealant effectively seals pulmonary air leak while accommodating cyclic tissue deformation during ventilation.