Sustained local drug delivery from a radiopaque implanted reservoir.

A new polymeric biomaterial that contains covalently bound iodine, and is therefore radiopaque, was used to construct a sustained local drug-delivery device. A polymeric wall was designed to be porous (i.e., passage of low-molecular-weight molecules across the wall is possible), self-healing, and biocompatible. Once implanted, the sphere cavity can be filled and refilled with a concentrated solution of a (cytostatic) drug, which is subsequently released by slow diffusion into the tissue region surrounding the sphere. This principle of sustained local drug delivery is shown by a series of in vitro experiments on the release of 5-fluorouracil, and in vivo animal experiments, using x-ray fluoroscopic and scintigraphic techniques.