Migration Resistant, Blood-Compatible Plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride for Medical and Related Applications (original) (raw)

Plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC), although not a blood-compatible polymer, is the material of choice for the manufacture of blood bags and hemodialysis tubing throughout the world. PVC is usually plasticized with di-(2-ethylhexyl phthalate) (DEHP) to impart flexibility and low temperature properties to the final product. DEHP belongs to a class of agents called hypolipidemic hepato-carcinogens, and it migrates in small quantities into the storage medium such as blood, plasma, or serum, resulting in a number of toxic effects. It has been shown that the migration resistance and blood compatibility of flexible PVC could be significantly improved by grafting polyeth-ylene glycol (PEG), the most blood-compatible polymer known today, onto the surface of flexible PVC by the classical Williamson ether synthesis reaction. The technique is simple and versatile enough to produce blood-compatible, migration resistant PVC surfaces for many medical applications. The method may also find use for preventing plas-ticizer migration from PVC cling films and polyvinylidene chloride films used extensively in food packaging. Key Words: Polyvinyl chloride—Polyethylene glycol— Grafting—Surface modification—Blood compatibility— Plasticizer migration—Di-(2-ethylhexyl phthalate).