The recently issued book ‘Natural and Synthetic Biomedical Polymers’ comprehensively covers the important field of biomedical-related applications using polymeric materials. Practically, all classes of polymers and their composites are widely used in everyday clinical routine applications. Medical work without the use of polymers is hard to imagine. Polymers are routinely applied in packaging of medical devices, but they are also used because they exhibit an advanced functionality in biomedical applications. These range from the use as scaffolds and implant materials to high-performance suture materials to drug-delivery devices. Their formulation – or more specifically their structural appearance – ranges from macroscopic architectures with sometime complex forms down to nano-sized biomaterials. This is even more the case for the application of polymeric biomaterials, since they are by definition used in or related to a complex environment (human beings). They have contact with the human body and a series of specific requirements have to be respected, when a biomaterial is intended to exert a mechanical (implants) or biochemical (drug-delivery) function. In any case they are expected to interact with the body and therefore a whole set of possibly inflicting circumstances have to be considered.
A comprehensive overview on this important field is all the more needed and was long expected. This timely book ‘Natural and Synthetic Biomedical Polymers’ now fills this gap. It provides the specialist, the researcher as well as the student with a mature and experienced compilation on all possible natural and synthetic polymeric materials including the specific fields of their use. This book contains in total 23 chapters written by more than 50 renowned authors and co-authors from all relevant fields of polymer processing, bioengineering and biomedical sciences. These chapters can be grouped into three major parts: (a) basics in polymer science, (b) the description single-class polymers and (c) the various fields of biomedical applications of the respective polymers.
This book starts with the basics of polymer processing (chapter 1). The basic synthetic types and techniques of polymerisation are introduced and the fundamental properties and characteristics of a selection of polymers related to biomedical science are already briefly discussed. This chapter finishes with a short description on how to generate and process various devices used in biomedicine. Chapter 2 on characterisation somewhat stinted on an elaborated description of the introduced methods. This could have been more detailed for the interested reader. Additional characterisation methods are found in chapter 20 (drug delivery), which might find themselves relocated in a future edition. The second part of this book is dedicated to the description of single-class polymers (chapters 3–18). The principal topic of this book is related to biodegradable polymers, which run as a golden thread through the entire book except for chapter 18, which is dedicated to non-degradable polymers. Detailed information on the most important naturally occurring biopolymers is given in chapters 3 (proteins and polyamino acids), 4 (polysaccharides and derivatives), 5 (chitosan), 6 (poly-α-esters) and later in chapters 16 (citrate-based polymers) and 17 (nucleic acid aptamers). In chapters 7–13, each class of synthetic polymers (polyesters, poly(ester amides), polyurethanes, polyanhydrides, polyphosphazenes, polyacetals, poly(pseudo amino acids)) is presented. All chapters give a distinct view on the respective polymer class, their structures and their specific characteristics as well as their uses and potentials in biomedical applications. Even recent developments on special polymers such as dendrimers, citrate-based elastomers and shape-memory materials are outlined in chapters 15, 16 and 19, respectively. The third and last part deals with the fundamentals and more specialised fields of applications for polymeric biomaterials (chapters 19–23). The topics include implantable materials, drug delivery, tissue engineering and even current achievements using nanotechnologies. A stimulating topic on the use of polymers for medical diagnostics in the central nervous system is also challenged.
Each chapter provides enough in-depth information about the discussed polymer or field of application for the reader to achieve a very good and comprehensive perspective on the topic. Valuable citations for further reading are given in each chapter. As being a person with a strong commitment to visual perception, I would have enjoyed colour figures more than the presented black and white images, which are often of low contrast. Altogether, the present book is of high importance and interest for anyone interacting with biomedical polymers, including researchers from chemistry, biology, material chemistry and even medical professions.
