FURI | Spring 2025

Evaluating Agar Hydrogels with Bupivacaine as a Potential Local Anesthetic for Post-Operative Patients

Opioids are commonly used to treat the post-operative pain in major surgeries like knee replacements, joint replacements or spinal surgeries. 76% of the drug overdose deaths in the U.S. were related to opioid usage. Using hydrogels, it is possible to treat patients with local anesthetics, such as bupivacaine, instead of opioid treatment. This study will focus on the synthesis of an agar hydrogel and testing its potential as a drug deliverable as a local anesthetic. This study will analyze the relationship between agar and bupivacaine, and test the recovery of bupivacaine in agar gels using HPLC at various bupivacaine concentrations.