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Biomechanical properties of vaginal tissue: preliminary results

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to characterise the biomechanical properties of vaginal tissue to develop an accurate cure of pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Prolapsed vaginal tissues were extracted during the prolapse cure of five patients (POP) and on five cadavers without noticed pelvic floor dysfunction (non-pelvic organ prolapse) with agreement of the ethics committee. Uni-axial tension was performed, and the results were analysed. Individual reproducibility of experimental results was good, and the results highlight the non-linear relationship between stress (force per unit of surface) and strain (l − l 0 / l 0) and very large deformation before rupture appearance. This experimental study has proven for the first time that the mechanical behaviour of vaginal tissue has to be defined as hyperelastic with a large deformation. This response has to be taken into account to develop accurate synthetic prostheses for POP cure and in the numerical simulation of the pelvic floor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinique de chirurgie gynécologique, Hôpital Jeanne de Flandre, CHRU de Lille, France

    Chrystèle Rubod, Malik Boukerrou, Clay Jean-Charles & Michel Cosson

  2. Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille, CNRS UMR 8107, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France

    Mathias Brieu

  3. Laboratoire de Technologie Médicale, INSERM U703, CHRU de Lille, France

    Patrick Dubois

  4. Clinique de Gynécologie, Hôpital Jeanne de Flandre-CHRU Lille, 2 avenue Oscar Lambret, 59037, Lille Cedex, France

    Chrystèle Rubod

Authors
  1. Chrystèle Rubod
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  2. Malik Boukerrou
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  3. Mathias Brieu
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  4. Clay Jean-Charles
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  5. Patrick Dubois
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  6. Michel Cosson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chrystèle Rubod.

Additional information

The authors thank the Foundation for Medical Research for financing this study and the ethics committee for their approval.

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Rubod, C., Boukerrou, M., Brieu, M. et al. Biomechanical properties of vaginal tissue: preliminary results. Int Urogynecol J 19, 811–816 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-007-0533-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-007-0533-3

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