Overview of the use of polymers in medical application as illustrated by the design, characterization, and application of tyrosine-derived polymers

Some of the opportunities and pitfalls of technology development in the field of biomaterials and medical devices are reviewed and a fundamentally new group of medical implant materials based on amino acid L-tyrosine polymers is discussed. It is shown that degradable polymers derived from L-tyrosine are of the newest classes of implantable materials for medical applications, the polymers being fabricated into fibers, films, rods, microspheres, porous foams or other configurations appropriate for medical devices. The main advantage of tyrosine based polymers is their biocompatibility due to degradation into nontoxic, naturally occurring metabolites (amino acids).