In vitro tissue welding using albumin solder: bond strengths and bonding temperatures

Welding is gradually becoming popular as a means of surgically sealing certain tissues, in particular, vessel walls. One means of forming a weld involves the denaturation of albumin solder by heat provided by converting infrared light energy using indocyanine green dye. Small changes in the formulation of the solder are shown to have large effects on the ease of handling the solder and on the strength of the resulting bond. Experiments are described in which the bond strengths of repaired aorta and cartilage were measured as a function of solder composition and irradiation parameters: energy, power and intensity. Mean strengths of around 0.1 MPa could be achieved under certain sets of conditions. It was found, using the melting of admixed crystals, that the temperature in the solder could reach 97°C locally during irradiation.