Electrospinning
Electrospinning is a process used to manufacture nano-sized fibers from various materials, such as polymers.Various drugs can also be used in conjunction with polymer materials in order to encapsulate the drugs within the fibers.Diameter control and fiber layering are two other structural characteristics of the electrospun fibers that can be tailored using electrospinning.Encapsulation, diameter control, and fiber layering have all been shown to correlate to drug release rates. In order to produce the drug encapsulating nano-sized fibers, the polymer material must be compatible with the electrospinning procedure. PLLA + PLGA can be fabricated from a polymer composite solution into solid nano-sized fibers using electrospinning.
Electrospinning is an effective processing technique that transforms polymer composite solutions into nano-sized fibers, which encapsulate various patency-enhancing drugs. Although other techniques, such as injection molding and extruding, can also be used to manufacture similar nano-sized drug eluting fibers, electrospinning offered various advantages.
Electrospinning involves four basic steps that are described in figure 1 below. (1) Emulsification of core materials in a solvent; (2) dissolution of fiber-forming polymers in the continuous phase; (3) electrospinning process of the resulted system; (4) harvesting the composite fibers on the receptor.
Compared to other processing methods that simply coat the polymer with a drug, electrospinning allows for encapsulation of the drug. Studies have shown that the encapsulation method using a hydrophobic material, such as PLGA, has led to significant retardation of drug release.

