Absorbable biomaterial implants are advantageous in that they require
no retrieval surgery and they absorb as the affected tissue heals. The
nature of the in vivo or in vitro absorption process may be determine
d by processing, embedding, and sectioning an explanted specimen and s
urrounding tissue or by directly embedding and sectioning an in vitro
specimen. It is important to utilize an embedding medium that will not
chemically interact with the polymer, in order to accurately determin
e the tissue/material absorption interaction. Poly-1-lactide absorbabl
e polymeric films were embedded in 5 different resins to observe the c
hemical interaction between the resin and the absorbable material and
to examine the relative ease of sectioning: methylmethacrylate, hydrox
yethyl methacrylate, paraffin, epoxy, and polyester based resins. Para
ffin, epoxy, and polyester resins best preserved the surface of the fi
lms. The study further suggests that paraffin may be too soft for moni
toring materials used in long term absorption studies and that polyest
er is suitable only if polymerization is initiated before the material
is embedded. Hydroxyethyl methacrylate was the most susceptible to en
vironmental conditions. In all cases, the direction of sectioning had
a substantial impact on the section quality.