Computer simulation of cervical tissue response to a hydraulic dilator device

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Device Development
• Computational Mechanics

Background:

• Traditional mechanical dilators for cervical dilation pose risks like uterine perforation and cervical laceration.
• A new continuous controllable balloon dilator (CCBD) was developed to mitigate these side effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To numerically investigate and compare the cervical canal tissue response to Hegar dilators and the novel CCBD.
• To evaluate the mechanical stresses induced by each dilator type.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a poroelastic finite element model and in-house software for numerical simulation.
• Experimentally measured in vivo boundary conditions for pressure loading.
• Fitted cervical tissue material properties using experimental in vivo data.

Main Results:

• Numerical simulations revealed significantly higher effective stresses within cervical tissue when using the Hegar dilator.
• The CCBD demonstrated lower stress induction in the cervical tissue during dilation compared to the Hegar dilator.

Conclusions:

• The CCBD device presents a promising alternative to mechanical dilators for cervical dilation.
• Implementation of CCBD could potentially prevent cervical injuries and reduce associated complications.