Study of Mechanical Properties of Electrospun PA-6 Nanowebs and Electrospun PA-6/ B Composite as Substitution Membrane for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Treatment
Résumé
The diaphragm is the main breathing muscle in the body which is divided into two parts made of both muscles (peripheral part) and tendons (central part). Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a rare defect that occurs while the diaphragm malformation happens between the fourth week and the third month of pregnancy. This process prevents the lungs from growing normally and it affects about 1 over 2,500 babies.
As a current treatment at Strasbourg Civil hospital in France in the case of big hole size, abdominal organs are moved back to the abdominal cavity and the hole will be closed by Gore-Tex prosthetic membrane. The problem is that by growing up the patient, who is mostly a baby, the existing hole in the diaphragm will grow as well. Gore-Tex implant membrane is not elastic enough so the time passing by there is a need to re operate the patients. The prosthesis in 43% of the cases will be removed because of hernia recurrence. To solve this problem, producing a new prosthesis by using electrospinning method could be a solution to reduce the number of planned re operation.
Mechanical test on pork’s diaphragm has been done in order to obtain a mechanical idea of feasible and the nearest case to human diaphragm. A comparison between the tensile mechanical properties of tendon part of diaphragm and electrospun PA-6 nanofibers due to its good mechanical and physical properties by using single needle electrospinning machine with 3 different times of electrospinning (3,6 and 9 hours of electrospinning) was done, the results showed that 3h electrospun PA-6 nanofibers are close to tendon in the level of interval force but the elasticity should be increased.
In order to increase the elasticity of electrospun PA-6 nanofibers, a B material is used during the electrospinning process. Electrospun PA-6/ B composite with different time of electrospinning is produced. The average diameter of produced nanofibers is close to the one expected in the specification.