Comparative in vitro biomechanical evaluation of two soft tissue defect products

A soft tissue defect is often an unavoidable consequence of various surgical procedures or a result of trauma. Recently, intraoperative use of xenograft as a patch to the soft tissue defect has become popular with various products available in the market. In this study, mechanical properties of the OrthADAPT™ Bioimplants (Pegasus Biologics, Irvine, CA), new xenograft products composed of collagen from equine pericardium, were evaluated individually and against an existing bioimplant product. The OrthADAPT™ Bioimplants have three subtypes which differ in the degree of crosslinking of collagen strands. The three products are named as FX, PX, and MX in the order of the degree of collagen crosslinking and likely durability in vivo, with FX most dense in crosslinking and hence most durable. The three subtypes underwent three destructive mechanical tests: tensile strength, suture pull-out strength, and burst strength test. In tensile strength and suture pull-out strength tests, the three products were compared with CuffPatch™, a similar collagen-based xenograft product from a competing manufacturer. In the burst strength test, the three products were compared with untreated equine pericardium tissue. In tensile strength and suture pull-out strength tests, the products FX and MX were shown to have mechanical properties that were comparable with CuffPatch, while the mechanical strength of PX was significantly inferior to FX and CuffPatch in tensile strength test. In burst strength test, there were no differences in mechanical properties among the three OrthADAPT Bioimplants. This study demonstrates the biomechanical equivalence of OrthADAPT with CuffPatch. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2007.