Behaviour of a new Composite Mesh for the Repair of Full-Thickness Abdominal wall Defects in a Rabbit Model (Research Paper Sample)

Research Article Critique:
Behaviour of a new composite mesh for the repair of full-thickness abdominal wall defects in a rabbit model
Nicholas Lappa
November 10, 2014
MEGR 3233: Intro to Biomaterials
Dr. Ahmed El-Ghannam
Table of Contents
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc402627125 \h 2Research Article Summary PAGEREF _Toc402627126 \h 2Critique of Research Article PAGEREF _Toc402627127 \h 2Appendix PAGEREF _Toc402627128 \h 4References PAGEREF _Toc402627129 \h 6
Introduction
Human beings represent the most complex and delicately systems known to mankind; millions of interactions between proteins, cells, enzymes and chemicals occur every second in order to sustain life.Self-repairing to a certain extent, some injuries suffered are repaired by the body’s own repair mechanisms. Sometimes however, injuries are sustained that are too severe to be naturally mended. The field of medicine has thus worked tirelessly over millennia to stave off injury and disease, and as a result has invented a plethora of devices and treatments for all manner of human ailments. In the past few, the medical field has begun to develop devices designed to be permanently implanted within the human body, to correct some physical failure or malignancy.
Development of suitable biocompatible materials for this task, termed biomaterials, is crucial in the treatment of injuries such as hernias "which continues to be one of the most frequent general surgery procedures”[1].To ensure new materials will not harm human patients, humane experimentation is first conducted on a variety of animal subjects after a material has passed the required laboratory analysis.Implants are inserted into the animals, which are then sacrificed and studied. Analysis of the implants physical and chemical behavior in the test subject provides invaluable information pertaining to the feasibility of the implant in human patients. More importantly, animal testing allows researchers to observe the body’s response to the foreign object, and whether or not complications will arise due to immune response.
Research Article Summary
A research paper titled "Behaviour of a New Composite Mesh for the Repair of Full-Thickness Abdominal Wall Defects in a Rabbit Model”, authored by Gemma Pascual, Sandra Sotomayor, Marta Rodriguez, Yves Bayon, and Juan Bellon, details the testing of new composite mesh materials. The meshes were designed for the repair of abdominal wall defects, and were composed of both mesh components and a laminar barrier [1].The research team outlined their analysis of a new composite mesh, comparing it against two other composite meshes currently used by the medical industry.
The research team began their experiment by forming 7x5cm defects "in the anterior abdominal wall of New Zealand White rabbits" [1].60male rabbit specimens were used, with batches of 15 rabbits being implanted with a Ventralight mesh, Physiomesh, Bard mesh, or the new composite mesh.. Figure 1 of the Appendix displays the variations between each mesh type, as well as example implant sites. Animals were euthanized by CO2 at 14 days and 90 days postsurgery, in order for the implants to be carefully examined.Both laparoscopic and post-surgery analysis was conducted on the meshes. The meshes were removed, and fragments were subjected to "light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), biomechanical tests, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and morphometric measurement" [1].Each mesh was divided into three equal sections for analysis, and three implants per group were subjected to tensile testing at 14 days postsurgery.
Analysis of the mesh implants revealed seroma formation at 14 days post-implant in Ventralight, Physiomesh and new composite material test subjects, but was absent in the Bard mesh subjects.The Bard mesh had the highest adhesion percentage to host tissue, as shown in Appendix Figure 2.The other materials all had similar adherence properties, with the new composite material having the best adherence of the three.
Critique of Research Article
The research team conducted a very rigorous and thorough analysis on the new composite material. However, several aspects of the implant were overlooked, which might lead to severe complications once this new mesh materials becomes widely used.
The first issue with the mesh analysis was its duration; the implants were inside test subjects for a maximum of 90 days, after which the implants were removed and analyzed [1]. While 90 days is a significant length of time, it is almost negligible when considering the expected service life of a mesh screen implant. Mesh implants are expected to last for several years, possibly even decades, in a human patient. Therefore the experimental period of 90 days was insufficient to properly investigate this new composite meshes in vivo behavior.The bre...