Abstract Surgical adhesives are widely used in clinical practice but pose a significant risk of severe vascular embolism complications. Nevertheless, there are currently no non-invasive direct methods for precise detection of detached emboli. Herein, we show a CT-visualized method for hypersensitive detection of single millimeter vascular emboli from adhesive in vivo by simply doping BiOCl into surgical adhesives. As proof of concept, BiOCl-BioGlue with excellent CT imaging capability is fabricated and applied to repair ruptured vessels and liver in male rats. The location, morphology, and degradation process of BiOCl-BioGlue can be dynamically monitored by CT imaging for 42 days, and pulmonary emboli caused by BiOCl-BioGlue, with sizes as small as 1.2 mm, are successfully detected. Additionally, the high K-edge of Bi enables precise detection of pulmonary emboli in spectral CT imaging, unaffected by confounding calcifications. The proposed non-invasive detection strategy for adhesive emboli significantly enhances the biosafety of surgical adhesives.
Liu et al. (2026) studied this question.