Swelling is ubiquitous for traditional as-prepared hydrogels, but is unfavorable in many situations, especially biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, internal wound closure, soft actuating and bioelectronics, and so forth. As the swelling of a hydrogel usually leads to a volume expansion, which not only deteriorates the mechanical property of the hydrogel but can bring about undesirable oppression on the surrounding tissues when applied in vivo. In contrast, anti-swelling hydrogels hardly alter their volume when applied in aqueous environment, therefore reserving the original mechanical performance and size-stability and facilitating their potential application. In the past decade, with the development of advanced hydrogels, quite a number of anti-swelling hydrogels with versatile functions have been developed by researchers to meet the practical applications well, through integrating anti-swelling property with certain performance or functionality, such as high strength, self-healing, injectability, adhesiveness, antiseptics, etc. However, there has not been a general summary with regard to these hydrogels. To promote the construction of anti-swelling hydrogels with desirable functionalities in the future, this review generalizes and analyzes the tactics employed so far in the design and manufacture of anti-swelling hydrogels, starting from the viewpoint of classical swelling theories. The review will provide a relatively comprehensive understanding of anti-swelling hydrogels and clues to researchers interested in this kind of materials to develop more advanced ones suitable for practical application.

膨胀对于传统制备的水凝胶来说无处不在，但在许多情况下是不利的，尤其是生物医学应用，如组织工程、内部伤口闭合、软驱动和生物电子学等。由于水凝胶的溶胀通常会导致体积膨胀，这不仅会降低水凝胶的机械性能，而且在体内应用时会对周围组织造成不利的压迫. 相比之下，抗溶胀水凝胶在水性环境中应用时几乎不会改变其体积，因此保留了原始的机械性能和尺寸稳定性并促进了它们的潜在应用。近十年来，随着先进水凝胶的发展，研究人员通过将抗膨胀性能与某些性能或功能（如高强度、自愈性、可注射性、粘合性、防腐性等。然而，还没有关于这些水凝胶的一般性总结。为了促进未来具有理想功能的抗膨胀水凝胶的构建，本综述从经典膨胀理论的角度概括和分析了迄今为止在抗膨胀水凝胶的设计和制造中采用的策略。该综述将为对这种材料感兴趣的研究人员提供对抗膨胀水凝胶的相对全面的了解和线索，以开发适合实际应用的更先进的材料。