Porous hydrogel biomedical foam scaffolds for tissue repair

In the present chapter, the state-of-the-art of porous hydrogel foams will be described and emphasis will be made on their relevance for biomedical applications and, more specifi cally, tissue repair. The description aims at emphasizing both some novel aspects as well as the versatility of hydrogel foams. In addition, an overview of some general hydrogel aspects will be given. Next, a section will deal with natural polymers commonly used and suitable for hydrogel foam development and their respective tissue regeneration applications, followed by a description on advanced technologies applied to design and characterize novel hydrogel foams