In VitroMechanical Testing of Braided Polyurethane Elastic Fiber and Braided Polyester for Equine Laryngoplasty

Abstract

Lycra® prostheses embedded in laryngeal cartilage pulled through the cartilage at lower loads than Ethibond™ prostheses. Lycra® suture loops were stronger than Ethibond™ suture loops. Lycra® had greater displacement than Ethibond™ in all tests as suture loops or when embedded in cartilage.

Ex Vivo Mechanical Evaluation of a Sternal ZipFix®Implant for Prosthetic Laryngoplasty in Horses

“…Distraction distance under cyclic load can be interpreted as a measure of the distance an implant could be expected to loosen when used in vivo. Differences in distraction distance are likely because of the effect of cyclic load increasing the rate of implant pull‐through within cartilage or in rare instances implant failure . In our report, the arytenoid‐ZipFix constructs distracted less and withstood a significantly greater load during subsequent load to failure.…”

“…Multiple alternative materials have previously been evaluated for use in prosthetic laryngoplasty, including a steel cable and washers, an alternate laryngoplasty system, and a monofilament nylon cranial cruciate ligament repair system; however, these reports have each used a different methodology, making it difficult to compare between studies. We replicated the methodology of previous reports for our study to enable comparisons across studies . Although Kelly et al and Dart et al reported that a double strand of suture has a biomechanical advantage in vivo compared with a single strand, we chose to use a single strand so as to solely compare implant materials in similar formats (single stand).…”

“…Breed, age, and sex of horses were recorded for all cadaver specimens. Larynges were collected within 1 hour of euthanasia, wrapped in saline‐soaked gauze and stored at −20°C . At the time of testing, larynges were thawed in groups at room temperature, dissected of all soft tissue, and paired arytenoid and single cricoid cartilages isolated from each larynx.…”

“…Each cartilage‐implant construct was tested individually (Fig A,B). Cartilage constructs were tested using a modification of a previously validated method . Individual arytenoid cartilages were mounted onto machined wooden blocks using three 1.25 inch #10 (0.190 mm) self‐tapping wood screws with metal washers (2 screws, 5 mm either side of the spine and 1 centered rostrally within the body of the arytenoid cartilage; Fig C).…”

“…An ex vivo model for mechanical evaluation of materials used for prosthetic laryngoplasty in horses has been described . Research using this model has recently focused on evaluating conventional materials for prosthetic laryngoplasty; however, no reports have used this model to look at larger, novel materials that may limit implant pull‐through within the laryngeal cartilages.…”