Mechanical characterisation of porcine rectus sheath under uniaxial and biaxial tension

Incisional hernia development is a significant complication after laparoscopic abdominal surgery. Intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is known to initiate the extrusion of intestines through the abdominal wall, but there is limited data on the mechanics of IAP generation and the structural properties of rectus sheath. This paper presents an explanation of the mechanics of IAP development, a study of the uniaxial and biaxial tensile properties of porcine rectus sheath, and a simple computational investigation of the tissue. Analysis using Laplace׳s law showed a circumferential stress in the abdominal wall of approx. 1.1 MPa due to an IAP of 11 kPa, commonly seen during coughing. Uniaxial and biaxial tensile tests were conducted on samples of porcine rectus sheath to characterise the stress–stretch responses of the tissue. Under uniaxial tension, fibre direction samples failed on average at a stress of 4.5 MPa at a stretch of 1.07 while cross-fibre samples failed at a stress of 1.6 MPa under a stretch of 1.29. Under equi-biaxial tension, failure occurred at 1.6 MPa with the fibre direction stretching to only 1.02 while the cross-fibre direction stretched to 1.13. Uniaxial and biaxial stress–stretch plots are presented allowing detailed modelling of the tissue either in silico or in a surrogate material. An FeBio computational model of the tissue is presented using a combination of an Ogden and an exponential power law model to represent the matrix and fibres respectively. The structural properties of porcine rectus sheath have been characterised and add to the small set of human data in the literature with which it may be possible to develop methods to reduce the incidence of incisional hernia development.