Utrecht hospital develops plaster that prevents leakage of cerebrospinal fluid

The University Medical Center in Utrecht developed a plaster that can stop the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid - a common complication after brain surgery. The hospital expects that the plaster will be readily available within a year, ANP reports.

Neurosurgeon Tristan van Doormaal from UMC Utrecht invented the plaster with the Brain Technology Institute in Utrecht and Polyganics bv in Groningen. "We needed something that would make the meninges 100 percent watertight. The current types of glue or other substances are often not specifically made for meninges and therefore provide insufficient results."

Van Doorn and his partners therefore developed a synthetic pad that will not loosen in a humid environment. "The brain is floating in moisture and this makes it difficult to stick something really well. This plaster sucks itself stuck, as it were, and adheres long enough to allow new meninges to grow. Eventually the plaster dissolves automatically and the danger has passed."

The neurosurgeon already treated his first two patients with the plaster.