Computational framework to model and design surgical meshes for hernia repair

Abstract

Surgical procedures for hernia surgery are usually performed using prosthetic meshes. In spite of all the improvements in these biomaterials, the perfect match between the prosthesis and the implant site has not been achieved. Thus, new designs of surgical meshes are still being developed. Previous to implantation in humans, the validity of the meshes has to be addressed, and to date experimental studies have been the gold standard in testing and validating new implants. Nevertheless, these procedures involve long periods of time and are expensive. Thus, a computational framework for the simulation of prosthesis and surgical procedures may overcome some disadvantages of the experimental methods. The computational framework includes two computational models for designing and validating the behaviour of new meshes, respectively. Firstly, the beam model, which reproduces the exact geometry of the mesh, is set to design the weave and determine the stiffness of the surgical prosthesis. However, this implies a high computational cost whereas the membrane model, defined within the framework of the large deformation hyperelasticity, is a relatively inexpensive computational tool, which also enables a prosthesis to be included in more complex geometries such as human or animal bodies.

Keywords::

• beam model
• membrane model
• hyperelasticity
• finite element model

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through research projects DPI2011-27939-C02-01/IPT-010000-2010-22 and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) through the CIBER initiative project ABDOMESH. CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D&i Plan 2008–2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions and financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund. B. Hernández-Gascón was funded by a grant (BES-2009-021515) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.