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Biaxial mechanical properties of swine uterosacral and cardinal ligaments

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Abstract

Mechanical alterations to pelvic floor ligaments may contribute to the development and progression of pelvic floor disorders. In this study, the first biaxial elastic and viscoelastic properties were determined for uterosacral ligament (USL) and cardinal ligament (CL) complexes harvested from adult female swine. Biaxial stress–stretch data revealed that the ligaments undergo large strains. They are orthotropic, being typically stiffer along their main physiological loading direction (i.e., normal to the upper vaginal wall). Biaxial stress relaxation data showed that the ligaments relax equally in both loading directions and more when they are less stretched. In order to describe the experimental findings, a three-dimensional constitutive law based on the Pipkin–Rogers integral series was formulated. The model accounts for incompressibility, large deformations, nonlinear elasticity, orthotropy, and stretch-dependent stress relaxation. This combined theoretical and experimental study provides new knowledge about the mechanical properties of USLs and CLs that could lead to the development of new preventive and treatment methods for pelvic floor disorders.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by NSF CAREER Grant No. 1150397. Winston Becker was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanics of Soft Biological Systems Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, 202 Norris Hall (MC 0219), Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Winston R. Becker & Raffaella De Vita

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  1. Winston R. Becker
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  2. Raffaella De Vita
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Correspondence to Raffaella De Vita.

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Becker, W.R., De Vita, R. Biaxial mechanical properties of swine uterosacral and cardinal ligaments. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 14, 549–560 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-014-0621-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-014-0621-5

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