Viscoelastic Behavior of Tendons During Repair: Does Biodegradable Nanofibrous Membrane Augmentation Work?

Restoring normal tendon function after injury requires reestablishing the tendon fibers and the gliding mechanism between the tendon and its surrounding structures. An electrospun PLGA/collagen/drug nanofibrous membrane was used for augmentation of tendon repair in the study. From the result, host type I collagen is affected by the donor type I collagen, i.e., delay proliferation. The elastic module increased over time, though no tendons in three groups reached the elasticity of the control tendon by the 12th week. The viscous modules reached their maximum value in the 4th week in all tendons; these values were higher than that of the control tendon over the whole study period. No tendon in any group reached the yielding load of the control tendon at the 12th week. In the current study, however, the nanofibrous membranes seem not to improve the tendon healing process when compared with the tendons in the primary suture group.

Keywords: Tendon repair, Biodegradable nanofibrous membrane, Viscoelasticity.