Avaliação da superfície do pessário modificado com quitosana.

Abstract

The prevention of preterm birth in women has been the subject of intense studies due to the important repercussions for the fetus and also for the mother. Preterm birth is responsible for about 50% of worldwide perinatal mortality. Among the alternatives of prevention of preterm birth we have the administration of progesterone, cervical cerclage and vaginal pessary use. The latter, however, has caused side effects, which can be minimized by surface modification of the same, as the use of chitosan, improving the contact between this biomaterial and the vaginal mucosa. Chitosan is a biopolymer which exhibits characteristics of tackiness, hydrophilicity and swelling, which are desirable properties to improve the performance of the pessary. In this context, the objective of this work is to perform the surface modification of the pessary with chitosan and to compare its morphological, physical and chemical characteristics. For the surface modification of the pessary was used the technique of dip-coating with the deposition of chitosan. The characterization techniques used were: X-ray diffraction (XRD), Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) / X-ray Dispersive Energy (EDS) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FTIR), Degree of Swelling and Wettability by Contact Angle Measurements. It was possible to verify by the FTIR assay that the polymer matrix used to obtain the pessary is the PMDS (polydimethylsiloxane) silicon and that the chitosan studied in this research presented all the characteristic functional groups. The XRD, SEM and EDS tests indicated the presence of a distributed inorganic filler in the material. The results of Wettability by contact angle suggested that the material presents a hydrophilic profile. In this way, it is concluded that the commercial pessary, object of this study, is not only a polymeric material as indicated by the manufacturer, but a compound that has the PDMS as a matrix added with a possible lubricant and / or mineral filler, and which from the proposed processing conditions the modification of the surface of the pessary was effective indicating its potentiality in solving the proposed challenges.