Modified Tissue Graft with Surface Patterns for Expandability
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current tissue grafts are constrictive, leading to recurrence, stress tears, and inability to expand with increased pressure, and they do not allow for targeted enhancement based on specific anatomic locations.
Innovation Solution
Modified tissue grafts are created by cutting, compressing, or removing areas of the initial graft to create surface patterns that allow for targeted resurfacing, promoting vascular ingrowth, reducing scarring, and enhancing expandability and adhesion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a solid porous sheet with perforations is used for tissue graft, then fluid egress and new tissue growth are enhanced, but the graft becomes constrictive leading to recurrence and inability to expand
Solution Approach 1:
The graft is divided into multiple interconnected pouches or chambers that can independently expand. Each pouch contains tissue growth factors or medicants and can expand to accommodate tissue growth without constraining the overall graft structure, resolving the contradiction between maintaining structural integrity for fluid egress and enabling expansion capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The graft structure incorporates nested pouches within a larger graft matrix. Smaller pouches containing specific therapeutic agents are embedded within the broader graft structure, allowing the outer graft to maintain its porous sheet structure for fluid egress while inner pouches provide localized expansion capacity for tissue growth.
2Ease of manufacture
If uniform surface treatment is applied to the graft, then manufacturing is simplified, but targeted resurfacing for specific anatomic locations cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The graft surface is treated with different properties in different regions to match specific anatomic requirements. Certain areas receive enhanced porosity or surface modifications to promote vascular ingrowth, while other areas maintain original properties for adhesion or structural support, enabling targeted resurfacing while remaining manufacturable through modular treatment processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The graft surface is divided into distinct zones with different surface treatments corresponding to different anatomic locations. Each zone can be independently treated with appropriate surface modifications, allowing targeted resurfacing for specific functional requirements while maintaining a systematic manufacturing approach.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the graft structure is made constrictive to maintain stability, then fixation is improved, but stress tears and recurrence increase
Solution Approach 1:
The graft structure transitions from a static constrictive design to a dynamic expandable structure. The graft can adapt its configuration based on tissue growth and pressure changes, maintaining stability for fixation while accommodating stress through controlled expansion, thereby preventing stress tears and recurrence.
Solution Approach 2:
The graft's physical parameters such as porosity, elasticity, and structural density are modified to balance stability and strength. By adjusting these parameters, the graft maintains sufficient rigidity for fixation while incorporating flexibility and expansion capacity to resist stress tears, resolving the contradiction between stability and strength.
Data Source
AI summary
In a method of creating a modified tissue graft, at least one exterior surface of a graft is modified by compressing, cutting and/or removing one or more portions thereof, such as to create designed surface features which cause the tissue graft to have characteristics for a specific anatomical area. The modified tissue graft may comprise a medicated graft, such as by associating medicants with the surface features, or by associating a second graft or layer with a modified base tissue graft layer, where medicants are associated with the second graft or layer. The tissue graft may be modified by pressing a specially configured template or die, such as having blades thereon, into the tissue graft, such as to create a pattern of partial depth cuts.