Recent applications of polylactic acid in pharmaceutical and medical industries

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable polymer with special properties that has been studied intensively during the last decades. PLA is one of the most promising biopolymers used in nowadays and have large number of applications in food, packaging, medical and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, with the extensive use of exogenous implementation of different materials in human body for repair of different types of soft and hard tissues in many surgeries, there was enormous need to apply natural, biodegradable, non-inflammatory and biocompatible materials. PLA and its co-polymer composites showed superior characters over other materials in tissue engineering applications. This review is focused on providing comprehensive information about the most recent and promising applications of PLA in the pharmaceutical and medical fields, such as in tissue engineering, pharmaceutical, injury management and drugs delivery system.