Biodegradable polymers are widely applied in medicine such as orthopedic internal fixation

controlled/ sustained drug release

tissue engineering scaffolds

and cardiovascular stents. Appropriate biodegradation is critical for those medical applications. A classical detection of biodegradation requires a large number of material samples and animals. Alternatively

some imaging techniques have been explored for non-invasive assessment of the degradation profile of an individual sample in situ. This review summarizes the recent advances in the field of in situ and non-invasive characterization of biodegradable polymeric materials

with emphasis of fluorescence imaging

photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging

and electrochemical method.