Biopolymer-based tympanostomy tubes with programmable, tunable, and on-demand degradation

A ventilation tube comprising at least one biopolymer, the ventilation tube having at least one characteristic centrifugal property selected from the group consisting of:

• i) a uniform density across at least a portion of the ventilation tube;
• ii) at least a portion of the ventilation tube is optically nontransparent;
• iii) at least a portion of the ventilation tube is free of layering;
• iv) at least a portion of the ventilation tube is interior-void-free;
• and
• v) at least a portion of the ventilation tube is free of cylindrical extrusion gaps.

A method of forming an ear tube, comprising:

• depositing a chitosan solution into an ear tube mold;
• subjecting the ear tube mold and its contents to a first centrifugation;
• depositing a polymerization bath into the ear tube mold and subjecting the ear tube mold and its contents to a second centrifugation to polymerize the chitosan solution into a shape of an ear tube;
• and
• drying the ear tube.

A ventilation tube that is made of chitosan and formed by a process comprising:

• depositing a chitosan solution into a ventilation tube mold;
• subjecting the ventilation tube mold and its contents to a first centrifugation;
• depositing a polymerization bath into the ventilation tube mold and subjecting the ventilation tube mold and its contents to a second centrifugation to polymerize the chitosan solution into a shape of an ventilation tube;
• and
• drying the ventilation tube.