Abstract

Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) is a critical deformity of the female pelvic floor suffered by over millions of women in the US. POP leads to prolapse of pelvic organs onto the vaginal canal causing discomfort, pain, strain and sexual dysfunction. Vaginal meshes are traditionally implanted surgically to rectify the herniation of the pelvic organs and correct patient-specific POP conditions. However, the bio incompatibility of such meshes within the female pelvic system have been recognized to be deletarious to the surrounding tissues due to mesh erosion, organ perforation and tissue slicing, leading to severe complications. In literature, several studies have been conducted to understand vaginal mesh mechanical properties and mesh tissue interactions. The current article reviews these recent advances, which will not only be valuable to understand the state of the art in the mesh tissue interaction characterization and the directions in which further work needs to be conducted, but would also be indispensable for understanding the challenges associated with vaginal mesh failure and the corrective strategies in terms of design and implementation moving forward.

Keywords: Transvaginal mesh; Pelvic organ prolapse (POP); Female pelvic system