Bioabsorbable Mesh Pouch with Drawstring for Implant Stabilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current breast implant support structures, such as internal bras or hammocks, often fail to provide long-lasting stabilization and anatomically appropriate shape, leading to the need for revision surgeries in breast augmentation and reconstruction procedures.
Innovation Solution
A bioabsorbable mesh pouch with a drawstring and mesh tabs that encases the implant, providing 360-degree support and allowing for secure suturing to the body's tissue, thereby maintaining the implant's position and shape during the healing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If internal bra or hammock structures are used to provide support, then additional support for the implant is achieved, but long-lasting stabilization and anatomically appropriate shape are not maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is divided into multiple functional components: a mesh pouch for 360-degree enclosure, drawstrings for adjustable closure, and mesh tabs for secure anchoring. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function optimally, with the pouch providing containment, drawstrings providing compression control, and tabs providing stable fixation to tissue.
Solution Approach 2:
The mesh pouch is constructed from flexible, thin mesh material that can conform to the implant shape and surrounding tissue anatomy. This flexibility allows the pouch to adapt to the anatomical space while maintaining structural support, and the mesh structure permits tissue ingrowth for long-term stabilization.
2Ease of manufacture
If round implants are used, then implantation is simplified, but anatomically appropriate breast shape is difficult to achieve or maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh pouch adds a third dimensional aspect to implant support by creating a three-dimensional enclosure that extends laterally and vertically beyond the implant boundaries. This dimensional extension allows the pouch to shape and localize the implant in multiple directions, transforming a simple round implant into an anatomically appropriate breast shape through the pouch's structured configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The mesh pouch is designed with curved, anatomical contours that follow the natural breast shape. The pouch's three-dimensional curved structure guides and shapes the implant to achieve anatomically appropriate breast morphology, transitioning from a simple round implant to a shaped breast form through the pouch's curved geometry.
3Shape
If revision surgery is performed to reshape or reposition implant, then anatomical appropriateness is improved, but patient undergoes additional surgery
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh pouch is pre-formed with the desired anatomical shape and structure before implantation. By preparing the shaped pouch in advance, the anatomically appropriate breast shape is achieved during the initial surgery without requiring subsequent revision procedures, thereby eliminating additional surgery time and patient recovery cycles.
4Strength
If non-bioabsorbable materials are used for mesh pouch, then structural strength is maintained, but risk of infection and complications increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mesh material transitions from non-bioabsorbable to bioabsorbable, changing the material's temporal properties. The bioabsorbable mesh maintains structural strength during the critical healing period through its initial mechanical properties, then gradually degrades over time as tissue integrates and strengthens, ultimately being fully absorbed. This parameter change in material biodegradability reduces long-term infection risk and complications while maintaining necessary structural support during healing.
Solution Approach 2:
The bioabsorbable mesh pouch serves as a temporary support structure that is gradually discarded by the body through biodegradation. As the mesh breaks down and is absorbed, the body's own tissue takes over the support function. This temporary use followed by natural discarding eliminates the need for permanent foreign materials, reducing long-term infection risk and complications.
Data Source
AI summary
An implementation of a mesh pouch includes a mesh wall that defines an enclosure having an opening at an end. The mesh pouch further includes a drawstring configured to close the opening when drawn so as to prevent the surgical implant from leaving the enclosure. The mesh pouch may further include a mesh tab extending from the mesh wall, the mesh tab providing a surface for suturing the mesh pouch to an inner surface of the patient's body. The mesh pouch may further include a strand extending from the mesh wall and a needle attached to a terminus of the strand. The strand may be configured to tighten the mesh wall around the surgical implant when pulled.