TY - GEN
T1 - Design and Validation of an Automated Dilator Prototype for the Treatment of Radiation Induced Vaginal Injury
AU - Simoes-Torigoe, Rafaela
AU - Chen, Po Han
AU - Li, Yu M.
AU - Kohanfars, Matthew
AU - Morris, Karcher
AU - Williamson, Casey W.
AU - Makale, Milan
AU - Mayadev, Jyoti
AU - Talke, Frank
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Vaginal stenosis (VS) is a common late complication of radiation injury caused by cervical cancer radiotherapy. It is characterized by the narrowing or shortening of the vaginal canal, which is often detrimental to patient quality of life. To address this public health problem, an expandable vaginal dilator was designed for the prevention of VS in cervical cancer survivors. Modeling and benchtop experimentation were used to iteratively characterize the relationship among dilator pressure, expansion, and the load applied to the simulated vaginal wall. Both experimental and simulation results exhibited shared trends relating pressure, dilator expansion, applied load, and resultant displacement of the modeled vaginal walls. Future work will incorporate enhanced Mooney-Rivlin material assumptions and validation of the model with in vivo tests.Clinical Relevance - These results present a design opportunity and treatment paradigm shift to increase patient adherence to VS treatment after cervical cancer radiotherapy. Specifically, gradual expansion of the vaginal dilator increases comfort during the expansion of the vagina, while monitoring the dilator pressure enables the tracking of VS improvement and normalization of vaginal wall compliance.
AB - Vaginal stenosis (VS) is a common late complication of radiation injury caused by cervical cancer radiotherapy. It is characterized by the narrowing or shortening of the vaginal canal, which is often detrimental to patient quality of life. To address this public health problem, an expandable vaginal dilator was designed for the prevention of VS in cervical cancer survivors. Modeling and benchtop experimentation were used to iteratively characterize the relationship among dilator pressure, expansion, and the load applied to the simulated vaginal wall. Both experimental and simulation results exhibited shared trends relating pressure, dilator expansion, applied load, and resultant displacement of the modeled vaginal walls. Future work will incorporate enhanced Mooney-Rivlin material assumptions and validation of the model with in vivo tests.Clinical Relevance - These results present a design opportunity and treatment paradigm shift to increase patient adherence to VS treatment after cervical cancer radiotherapy. Specifically, gradual expansion of the vaginal dilator increases comfort during the expansion of the vagina, while monitoring the dilator pressure enables the tracking of VS improvement and normalization of vaginal wall compliance.
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U2 - 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630126
DO - 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630126
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 34891582
AN - SCOPUS:85122515777
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
SP - 1562
EP - 1565
BT - 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2021
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2021
Y2 - 1 November 2021 through 5 November 2021
ER -