Determination of the force necessary for the propagation of tears in ostrich and calf pericardium.
The durability of prosthetic heart valve leaflets made of biological materials is limited. A tear in the biomaterial accelerates their early failure, but microtearing of the collagen fibers may be responsible for their medium-term failure. We studied the force necessary to propagate tearing in two biomaterials: ostrich and calf pericardium. One hundred twenty samples of each tissue were tested in an Elmendorf pendulum capable of measuring the force required to tear a tissue in which a predefined slit had been made. The forces required to produce tears, ranging between 2.5 and 0.25 cm in length, were determined. For ostrich pericardium, this force ranged between 67.67 and 4.80 newton, while that required to tear the same lengths of calf pericardium ranged between 70.67 and 4.70 newton. The function that relates the tearing force to the length of the tear was expressed as follows: y = 20.62x + 1.77x(2) (R(2) = 0.923) for ostrich pericardium and y = 45.57x - 7.21x(2) (R(2) = 0.936) for calf pericardium, where y is the force in newton and x is the length in centimeter. Calf pericardium was found to have a greater resistance to tearing. However, these results should be interpreted with caution owing to the fact that the thickness of the majority of the samples of ostrich pericardium was significantly less than that of calf pericardium. A more careful selection and utilization of adult ostrich pericardium would probably improve these results.
García Páez
José María
JM
Servicio de Cirugía Experimental, Clínica Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain. jmgpaez@telefonica.net
Carrera
Antonio
A
Jorge
Eduardo
E
Millán
Isabel
I
Cordón
Angeles
A
Maestro
María A
MA
Rocha
Aurora
A
Morales
S
S
Castillo-Olivares
José Luis
JL
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001705:Bioprosthesis; D002417:Cattle; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D010496:Pericardium / Q000293:injuries*; D020310:Struthioniformes; D013718:Tensile Strength
D001672:Biocompatible Materials