Blood contacting surfaces are important interface regions of medical devices and should possess compatibility with respect to device and blood sensitive parameters, such as blood constituents, blood flow dynamics and kinetics and surface condition, surface area, material nature, and geometry of the device. An effective method for devising clinically useful devices relies on surface modification of biomaterial with proven functionality and bulk properties to combat activation of the complement system induced by the surfaces.

Applications include organic and inorganic modifications of blood contacting surfaces of catheters, grafts, vascular stents, artificial heart valves, circulatory support devices, various extracorporeal tubings, hemodialysis, hemofiltration, plasmapheresis, aphaeresis, extracorporeal oxygenation membranes, and so on.

Inorganic modifications address durability and passiveness of device materials, whereas polymer-based organic modifications take care of specific biochemical reaction sequences. Transplantation of surface-modified devices to wide range of patients, optimization of technology, transition from research to clinical applications, safety and flexibility of intended use pose basic challenges for device surface modifications.

We invite advance research articles as well as review articles describing the developments in modification of medical device surfaces. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Criteria for blood-contacting surfaces: physical and chemical property assessment and attribution for medical device surfaces
• Surface modification and biocompatible coatings through organic, inorganic, and bimolecular films or cell seeding
• Methods to evaluate blood compatibility or hemocompatibility of medical device materials
• Improvements for integrity and duration of biocompatible coatings
• Anticoagulation and antithrombus coating technologies

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