Basic and Translational Science AbstractBiomechanical Properties of Human Pelvic Organs
Section snippets
Material and Methods
Recently, we were able to establish and validate a new experimental protocol for the biomechanical characterization of vaginal tissue.9 Tissue samples were obtained from 5 fresh female cadavers (mean age 75 years) without a history of pelvic reconstructive surgery and without clinically relevant POP, which was excluded by gynecologic examination and use of a Pozzi clamp to pull on the cervix. The cadavers had not been prepared with formaldehyde but were frozen for conservation and unfrozen just
Results
Tissue samples from the vagina, urinary bladder, and rectum were collected in a standardized manner from 5 fresh female cadavers without clinically relevant POP.
The size of the removed specimens allowed us to perform several rupture tests for each of the tissues examined per cadaver. The respective curves obtained from the same cadaver were superimposed and revealed good intraindividual reproducibility of the experiments performed according to our protocol (Fig. 1).
The rupture and cyclic
Comment
In the present study, we were able to demonstrate that the biomechanical properties of the vaginal, bladder, and rectal tissue differed significantly at large strain levels. We found a visco-hyperelastic behavior with a Mullins damage effect in the tissues examined. Although at first, these results might not be surprising, our primary rational for investigating these adjacent tissues from a biomechanical perspective was the increasing use of prosthetic material in the interface between these
Conclusions
The biomechanical properties of the vaginal, bladder, and rectal tissues differed significantly. We were able to demonstrate a nonlinear relationship between the stress and strain levels and a visco-hyperelastic behavior with Mullins effect damage of the tissues examined. We suggest that the use of the same prosthetic material or surgical approach for different anatomic localizations might not be appropriate, considering the observed differences in rigidity and anisotropism at large
Acknowledgment
To Laboratory of Anatomy of the CHRU Lille, with thanks, for support with cadaver dissection.
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Financial Support: Unconditional financial support for basic research from Ethicon Women's Health and Urology.