ABSTRACT
The chapter describes potential and investigated CHEM foam biomedical applications. Properties that CHEM foams add to SMP properties, including a wide range of porosities, light weight, high full/stowed volume ratio and precision of original shape restoration, indicate that they have a potential to be used in functional and deployable elements of numerous different clinical devices. Certain potential CHEM foam medical applications are foreseen for vascular and coronary grafts, orthopedic braces and splints, medical prosthetics and implants. The CHEM could be used to design artificial grafts for replacing diseased arteries as well as a scaffold for tissue engineering. CHEM would be appropriate for both soft tissue and hard tissue engineering because of the wide range of glass transition temperatures and its many possibilities for reversible changes of the elastic modulus. They may be used as a three-dimensional matrix to support bone growth in vitro and in vivo. It may perhaps be used for breast implants or similar applications. Some CHEM medical applications already investigated with encouraging results, such as endovascular treatments of aneurysms, are described in this chapter.
