Poly(vinyl alcohol)-acrylamide hydrogels as load-bearing cartilage substitute.

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) has been advanced as a biomaterial for the fabrication of medical devices to be used as synthetic articular cartilage because of its viscoelastic nature, high water content, and biocompatibility. Key material requirements for such devices are high creep resistance to prevent mechanical instability in the joint and high water content to maintain a lubricious surface to minimize wear and damage of the cartilage counterface during articulation. The creep resistance of PVA hydrogels can be increased by high temperature annealing; however this process also collapses the pores, reducing the water content and consequently reducing the lubricity of the hydrogel surface [Bodugoz-Senturk H, Choi J, Oral E, Kung JH, Macias CE, Braithwaite G, et al.

The effect of polyethylene glycol on the stability of pores in polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels during annealing.

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels are candidate biomaterials for cartilage resurfacing or interpositional arthroplasty devices requiring high-creep resistance and high water content to maintain lubricity. Annealing of PVA improves creep resistance but also reduces the water content. We hypothesized that maintaining poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) within PVA during annealing would prevent the collapse of the pores and thus would result in high equilibrium water content (EWC).