2006 - UZ Leuven

macroscopically for infections, herniations and adhesions,mechanically for tensile strength, and histopathologically, to evaluatecollagen deposition and inflammatory response.Results: None of the animals developed herniation or infection, andseromata were present only at day 7 around the silk implants. Amountand density of peritoneal adhesions, initially higher with the silk,progressively decreased over the time to be comparable for allmaterials at 90 days. The tensile strength of the explants showed agradual and similar increase for silks and SPMM at all time points. Allimplants uniformly shrank around one fifth by day 90. In the silkimplants the inflammatory reaction showed a remarkable highernumber of foreign body giant cells that characteristically spread fromthe periphery to the central part of the mesh. Collagen deposition wascomparable in amount, composition and organisation for all testedmaterials. In both of the two silk materials a higher grade ofneovascularisation was observed.Conclusion: The two tested silk constructs induced a similar level ofintraperitoneal adhesions after surgery when compared to a standardmacroporous polypropylene mesh. Tensile strength of the explantswas also comparable over the three months observation period.Microscopically this coincided with a strong foreign body reaction andintense fibrosis process, that took place deeply between individual silkfilaments, with obvious architectural degradation of the initialconstruct, a phenomenon not observed in polypropylene explants.Density of the silk material did not appear to affect the meshcharacteristics.SPELZINI F., KONSTANTINOVIC M., GUELINCKX I., VERBIST G.,VERBEKEN E., DE RIDDER D., DEPREST J.: Tensile strength and hostresponse towards silk and type I polypropylene implants used foraugmentation of fascial repair in a rat model. Gynecol. Obstet. Invest.,2006; 63: 155-162.Objective: We compared host response, architectural integration andtensile strength of two different macroporous silk constructs to apolypropylene type I implant in a rat model for augmentation ofprimary fascial defect repair.Materials and Methods: Animals were sacrificed on days 7, 14, 30 and90 after implantation. The explants were evaluated macroscopicallyfor infections, herniations and adhesions, mechanically for tensilestrength, and histopathologically, to evaluate collagen deposition andinflammatory response.Results: The tensile strength of the explants showed a gradualincrease for all materials. All implants uniformly shrank around onefifth by 90 days. In the silk implants, the inflammatory reaction showed152