Stresses produced by different textile mesh implants in a tissue equivalent

Abstract

Two single-incision mini-slings used for treating urinary incontinence in women are compared with respect to the stresses they produce in their surrounding tissue. In an earlier paper we experimentally observed that these implants produce considerably different stress distributions in a muscle tissue equivalent. Here we perform 2D finite element analyses to compare the shear stresses and normal stresses in the tissue equivalent for the two meshes and to investigate their failure behavior. The results clearly show that the Gynecare TVT fails for increasing loads in a zipper-like manner because it gradually debonds from the surrounding tissue. Contrary to that, the tissue at the ends of the DynaMesh-SIS direct may rupture but only at higher loads. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental observations thus the computational model helps to interpret the experimental results and provides a tool for qualitative evaluation of mesh implants.

Special Issue: Medical Textiles

“…The optimized combination of fibre and structure elasticity is one key factor to overcome the major problem of compliance mismatch between the implant and the connected tissue. The effects of different biomechanical behaviours of different textile implants are shown in the manuscript by Frotscher and Staat [4]. The in silico analysed load distribution of two different textile slings for the treatment of urinary incontinence gives a realistic impression of the impact of the textile structure on the clinical outcome.…”