Microneedle patch for treatment of septic arthritis

• Main Author: Koh, Wei En
• Other Authors: Chen Peng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77799
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report presents a review of an approach to treat septic arthritis. Septic arthritis arises from an infection formed by the joint and they can be caused by bacterial, fungal or viral. This disease is more prominent to the elderly and children; males are more commonly affected compared to females. Early diagnosis and treatments are required to avoid destructive of joints and even death. The conventional way of treating the disease involves antibiotics cream, arthrotomy, scope procedure and joint drainage. However, due to formation of drug resistance caused by frequent antibiotic cream, continuous infections and pain induced from hypodermic needles, it is imperative to develop a patient-friendly and effective way to treat this disease. Transdermal system by polymeric microneedle for local delivery was introduced. Advantages include non-invasiveness, sustained release property which could prevent gastrointestinal degradation and prevention of drug metabolism. Microneedles are widely researched for drug, delivery of vaccine and also in patient diagnosis as they can penetrate the stratum corneum to achieve effective therapeutic effect. The drug will be loaded into the polymer microneedle, which will be gradually released through swelling and degradation of the polymer. Besides, the polymer exhibits antimicrobial effect could treat resistant microbes. Therefore, the author will fabricate drug loaded antimicrobial polymeric microneedles to achieve effectively killing normal and resistant microbes.