One aspect of the present invention relates to methods of sealing a wound or tissue plane or filling a void space, or securing meshes, films or other devices within the body. In certain embodiments, the wound is an ophthalmic, pleural or dural wound, or a hernia repair mesh. Remarkably, disclosed herein is the discovery that the use of certain crosslinkers in combination with polyalkyleneimines at specific concentrations can result in hydrogels with tunable degradation properties.