Smart hydrogels are one family of polymers that can be swellable but insoluble in water

and this hydrogel system can be responsive to external stimuli in the spontaneous manner. As one family of smart hydrogels

thermosensitive hydrogels exhibit volume phase transition phenomenon with the change of environment temperature. Therefore

the combination of thermosensitive hydrogels with antibacterial agents can impart antibacterial activity to the hydrogels. Such kind of novel smart hydrogels with antibacterial activity is able to discontinuously release antibacterial agents with the change of environmental temperature to thereby prolong service life of antibacterial agents. Thus

they would be applied in many fields

such as biology

pharmaceutics

textile

and so on. In this review

the thermosensitive mechanism of thermosensitive hydrogels was introduced. And research progress in the applications of such thermosenstive composite hydrogels(e.g. polyacrylamide

poloxamer

chitosan

and poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polyester copolymer) in combination with antibacterial agents in the antibacterial field during recent years

were reviewed in detail. Finally

their existing problems and prospects in the current research were putted forward as well.