Gelfoam is widely used in spine surgery and its complication is rare. Gelfoam has been used to control the bleeding and prevent scar adhesion when used after laminectomy as an effective interposing membrane

However, it has the potential to compress the adjacent structure and change to the hard epidural fibrosis, which may be overlooked ¹⁾.

Gelfoam as part of the Cerebrospinal fluid fistula repair is contraindicated ²⁾.

Gelatin-doxorubicin sticks (GDSs) were created by passively loading precut gelatin foam strips (Gelfoam) with doxorubicin solution. The dried GDSs were inserted into the needle track through the sheath during the needle biopsy and eventually self-absorbed.

Bai et al. showed that this procedure prevented iatrogenic tumor seeding during needle biopsies in two subcutaneous tumor models. In an alternative application, using GDSs in intracranial brain tumor implantation avoided the outgrowth of tumor from the rodent brain, which could otherwise potentially fuse the tumor with the meninges and distort the results in therapeutic studies in rodent brain tumor models ³⁾.