Chitosan-hyaluronic acid composite injectable hydrogel as open postoperative peritoneal anti-adhesive agent

Peritoneal Adhesion is considered as pathological healing after an abdominal surgery. Alternative peritoneal adhesion prevention can be done by injecting hydrogel in peritoneal wound site. Synthesis of injectable hydrogel was made by composing chitosan solution with hyaluronic acid. Hydrogel was formed by mixing hyaluronic acid solution and chitosan with concentrations varied from 0, 20, 30, to 40 mg/ml. The results of FTIR test showed that there is a characteristic absorption band of hyaluronic acid, called group of C=O stretching at wave number of 1636.31 cm^-1; while the typical absorption band of chitosan is asym stretch -COO- group at wave number of 1619 cm^-1. The results of swelling test indicated that values of swelling ratio range from 172.57% to 214.43%. Furthermore, the outcome of degradation test illustrates that samples with the best degradation ratio of 20 mg/ml chitosan concentration are able to be degraded by 85% on Day 9. Then, the results of SEM test showed that the samples have good porosity and interconnective tissues. Meanwhile, the outcome of cytotoxicity test indicated that all samples are non-toxic. DSC test results indicated that hydrogel do not yield alteration of thermal properties at 15-45 °C, so this material performed well in terms of body temperature.