Fixing Holes in Hearts with UV Light-Enabled Catheter

A multi-disciplinary team of Bostonarea researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Karp Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have jointly designed a specialized catheter that, they say, can fix holes in the heart using a biodegradable adhesive and patch. The catheter has been used successfully in animal studies to facilitate hole closure without the need for open heart surgery.