A soft-tissue coupling for wound closure

Alan J. Melvin, David B. Melvin, William J. Kitzmiller, Kyle R. Fath, Paul W. Biddinger, Natalia Juncosa-Melvin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wounds often cannot be successfully closed by conventional means of closure such as sutures or staples. Our group developed the FiberSecureTM device to close soft tissue wounds reliably, surpassing native tissue strength. We closed cross-fiber muscle incisions, to evaluate (1) four different configurations of FiberSecureTM for 30 days, then (2) the resulting preferred configuration for 180 days. The four treatment groups each placed 21,504 polyester (PET) 12-μm fibers (cross-sectional area 1% of muscle) traversing the incision, in the form of (A) Four large (No.7 suture) non-textured bundles, (B) Eight small (No.2 suture) non-textured, (C) Four large textured, or (D) Eight small textured. Four incisions were closed in the external oblique muscle of 16 Sinclair minipigs. At 30 days, specimens were removed for biomechanics, histology, and total collagen content. Group (B) was selected for 180-day evaluations in the same wound model in eight animals, four closures each (n = 32), again with biomechanics and histology. In strength testing, every specimen tore through muscle remotely, while the repair region remained intact. Maximum forces were (A) 37.8 ± 3.9 N, (B) 37.1 ± 4.7 N, (C) 39.0 ± 5.3 N, and (D) 32.4 ± 3.4 N at 30 days, and 37.2 ± 11.3 N at 180 days (mean ± SEM). No significant difference was observed among the groups or time points (p > 0.05).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)184-189
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part B Applied Biomaterials
Volume97 B
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2011

Keywords

  • fixation
  • muscle
  • polymer
  • suture
  • wound closure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomaterials
  • Biomedical Engineering

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