Mechanical Response of the Herniated Human Abdomen to the Placement of Different Prostheses

Abstract

This paper describes a method designed to model the repaired herniated human abdomen just after surgery and examine its static mechanical response to the maximum intraabdominal pressure provoked by a physiological movement (standing cough). The model is based on the real geometry of the human abdomen bearing a large incisional hernia with several anatomical structures differentiated by MRI. To analyze the outcome of hernia repair, the surgical procedure was simulated by modeling a prosthesis placed over the hernia. Three surgical meshes with different mechanical properties were considered: an isotropic heavyweight mesh (Surgiproآ®), a slightly anisotropic lightweight mesh (Optileneآ®), and a highly anisotropic mediumweight mesh (Infinitآ®). Our findings confirm that anisotropic implants need to be positioned such that the most compliant axis of the mesh coincides with the craneocaudal direction of the body.