Propagation of mechanical strain in peripheral nerve trunks and their interaction with epineural structures

Abstract

Advances in peripheral nerve electrode technology have outpaced the advances in chronic implantation reliability of the electrodes. An observable trend is the increased deposition of fibrotic encapsulation tissue around the electrode to shift its position away from the implantation site and subsequently reducing performance. A finite element model (FEM) is developed in conjunction with tensile testing and digital image correlation of strain to understand the relationship between cuff electrode attachment and the strain environment of the nerve. A laminar and bulk nerve model are both developed with material properties found in literature and geometry found from performing histology. The introduction of a cuff electrode to an axially stretched nerve indicates a significant behavior deviation from the expected response of the axial strain environment. When implemented in ex-vivo tensile testing, results indicate that the reduction of strain is statistically significant but becomes much more apparent when paired with a digital image correlation system to compare predicted and measured effects. A robust FEM is developed and tested to emphasize the effect that the boundary conditions and attachment methodology significantly effects the strain environment. By coupling digital image correlation with FEM, predictive models can be made to the strain environment to better design around the long term chronic health of the implant.