Development and Validation of a Gas Exclusion Technique to Allow Sterile Procedures in Non-sterile Environment

Tissue Engineering is one the most encouraging form of treatment for patients with advanced forms of articular cartilage degeneration today, and remains under active development. The extraction of required samples for effective TE research is complicated by the absolute need for sterility during the biopsy procedure. However, there are situations in which a standard bio-safety hood is not able to provide sterility for a required operation, particularly in the case of large subject matter which will not fit within the hood without disturbing laminar hood flow or in the case where large pieces of equipment such as powered tools are required. This gives rise to the necessity of an alternative method of sterile biopsy. The main aim of this study is the development and evaluation of a technique based on using positive pressure nitrogen gas in order to provide a locally and temporary sterile environment, which can be suitable in a general laboratory or clinical setting and also may be applicable in emergency applications, outdoor surgery and so on.