Dear Helen Kas, among a number of water soluble polymers there are some compounds permitting medical application. For example, mark polyvinyl acetate and its derivatives are worthy of mark (see, please, a review attached).
I published an overview of: Biomaterials in Dentistry and Medicine. In: Biomaterials Developments and Applications, H. Bourg and A. Lisle (Editors), Book Series: Advances in Biology and Medicine, Nova Science Publishers, pp. 231-289. ISBN: 978-1-60876-476-1.
If you have a look at the list of resorbable polymers listed in Table 8 on page 72 this will give you a reasonable idea of the types of materials applied.
- Buddy Ratner's Book on Biomaterials Science if you want an overview of the area this is a superb book and although now in its 3rd Edition I still like/prefer the 1st Edition if you can find a copy
More specific overview:
- Zheng Zhang, Ophir Ortiz, Ritu Goyal, Joachim Kohn Chapter 23 – Biodegradable Polymers Principles of Tissue Engineering (Fourth Edition) Edited by:Robert Lanza, Robert Langer and Joseph P. Vacanti (2014)
Chapter Biomaterials in Dentistry and Medicine. In: Biomaterials Dev...
Your question is general. You will find lot of reviews and books on the topic also on scifinder/scopus or simply on google. we work on Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)s which are also interesting class of stimuli that is thermoresponsive polymers. It is water soluble and frequently used to prepare drug delivery systems.