Biocompatible hydrogel ostomy adhesive

Ostomies are digestive and excretory surgeries where waste is redirected to the outside of the abdomen, requiring a bag to catch excretion. Current methods use adhesives to create adhesion for 24-h usage of the ostomy bag. However, current adhesives are weak and unstable, and often lead to leakages of ostomy effluents resulting in various clinical complications including irritant dermatitis and infection. Due to these challenges, no commercially available product provides strong enough adhesion nor mechanical softness to prevent skin damage from ostomy leaks. In this work, we introduce a hydrogel ostomy adhesive (HOA) made from a tough double-network hydrogel based on polyacrylamide and sodium alginate that strongly adheres onto the skin for over 24 h and prevents leaks by maintaining fluid-tight sealing against regular bodily movements. The adhesion of HOA to abdominal skin is achieved by the topological adhesion formed by a biopolymer chitosan solution. The HOA’s robust adhesion of an ostomy bag is demonstrated on ex vivo porcine skin and in vivo human skin and is compared with existing commercially available ostomy bag adhesives.