Effect of the Sterilization Procedures of Different Surgical Meshes for Abdominal Surgery

Abstract

The surgical meshes selection, according to the structure and porosity of the biomaterial type and meshes design, is directly dependent on the surgical procedure used and interaction between biomaterial type and abdominal viscera. Surgical mesh must provide sufficient biomechanical strength in order to assure the physiological requirements in order to protect the soft tissue defects. The large variety of biomaterials used in abdominal surgery and the multitude of surgical fixation procedures show that we are still far from the ideal prosthesis. The main objective of this paper is to determine the effect of the sterilization procedures of some surgical meshes, with different design and made of different materials, on their structure and properties of interest. Experimental research was conducted on three types of surgical meshes, different from material and design point of view. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy was used to evaluate the structural characteristics of the samples. In the evaluation of the surface properties, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for the qualitative assessment of surface morphology and contact angle determinations (CA) to determine the wettability properties. The sterilization process used was chemical sterilization with ethylene oxide, a procedure used by surgeons in clinical practice. According to the experimental research, the negative effects of the sterilization process on surgical meshes used in abdominal surgery are accentuated for the samples sterilized with ethylene oxide for three times, while their sterilization only one cycle does not significantly affect the surface properties and tensile strength of surgical meshes, regardless of the design and material of which they are composed.