A hydrophilic thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) was modified by reactive extrusion to obtain in a first step a grafted and soluble material and to finally form by a hydrolysis condensation process a weakly crosslinked network. Different isocyanates were used as grafting agents and a alpha,omega-dihydroxypoly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was used to modify the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the material and the chain length between the crosslinks. The influence of the isocyanate functionality and of the PDMS content were studied on the network formation and on the thermo-mechanical and water sorption properties. The networks properties were also compared with those of a TPU/PDMS blend. 02005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.