Implantable Medical Devices and Tissue Engineering: An Overview of Manufacturing Processes and the Use of Polymeric Matrices for Manufacturing and Coating their Surfaces

Abstract

Medical devices are important diagnosis and therapy tools for several diseases which include a wide range of products. Technological advances in this area have been proposed to reduce adverse complication incidences. New technologies and manufacturing processes, as well as the development of new materials or medical devices with modified surface and the use of biodegradable polymeric devices such as a substrate for cell culture in the field of tissue engineering, have attracted considerable attention in recent years by the scientific community intended to produce medical devices with superior properties and morphology. This review article focused on implantable devices, addresses the major advances in the biomedical field related to the devices manufacture processes such as 3D printing and hot melting extrusion, and the use of polymer matrices composed of copolymers, blends, nanocomposites or grafted with antiproliferative drugs for manufacturing and/or coating the devices surface.