Measurement of Suture Pullout Forces of the Pancreatic Duct and Capsule

A thorough biomechanical understanding of human organs is of increasing importance for designing and improving a wide range of medical technologies from simulators to medical devices. Despite the crucial need for data, little procedure-specific biomechanical testing on human tissue has been published. Specifically, pancreatic duct anastomosis, which has high rates of complications related to pancreatic duct leakage and patency, could benefit from improved assistive technologies. This study aims to help characterize the biomechanics of this critical step of the procedure by measuring the suture pullout force (SPOF) of the pancreatic duct and capsule. 216 tests were performed on 33 fresh, unfixed donated human pancreases. A previously reported uniaxial testing frame, was used to measure the SPOF of the pancreases. The mean pancreatic duct SPOF was 2.62 ± 1.11 N and the mean pancreatic capsule SPOF was 1.99 ± 1.33 N. To our knowledge, this is the first reported human pancreatic duct and capsule suture pullout measurement. These data can be used to inform a wide variety of biomedical technologies with primary interest in high-fidelity training simulators.