In vitro mechanical testing of braided polyurethane elastic fiber and braided polyester for equine laryngoplasty.

The study compares the mechanical properties of Lycra® and Ethibond™ both as sutures and when inserted into the muscular process of nequine laryngeal cartilage. It found that Lycra® prostheses pull through the cartilage at lower loads and Lycra® suture loops are stronger than Ethibond™.

Research Methodology

• The study used equine cadaver larynges (n = 15) as the sample for the experiment.
• The muscular processes (n = 30) of the arytenoid cartilages were dissected from each larynx and embedded in a resin base.
• Both Lycra® and Ethibond™ prostheses underwent the same cyclic fatigue followed by load-to-failure testing.
• Isolated suture loops of Lycra® (n = 25) and Ethibond™ (n = 25) also underwent the same cyclic fatigue followed by load-to-failure testing (n = 20) or a creep testing protocol (25 N for 10 min; n = 5).

Research Findings

• Findings show that the Lycra® prosthesis pulled through the cartilage at significantly lower mean loads (95.9 ± 23.4 N) during load-to-failure testing than Ethibond™ prostheses (155.2 ± 24.4 N).
• Furthermore, Lycra® had a significantly greater displacement with and without a cartilage interface when compared to Ethibond™.
• Another key finding was that isolated suture loops of Lycra® failed at significantly greater loads (233.0 ± 38.7 N) during load-to-failure testing than Ethibond™ loops (201.6 ± 47.4 N).

Conclusions

• The overall conclusion of the study is that Lycra® prostheses embedded in laryngeal cartilage pulled through the cartilage at lower loads than Ethibond™ prostheses.
• Another significant conclusion is that Lycra® suture loops were stronger than Ethibond™ suture loops.
• The last principal conclusion is that Lycra® generally had greater displacement than Ethibond™ across all tests as suture loops or when embedded in cartilage.