Internal

Internal Team Organization

Project Contacts:

Project Sponsor: Sameer B. Shah {sbshah@health.ucsd.edu}

Fiscal Contact: Ariel Tam {arielt@health.ucsd.edu}

Project Description:

Background:

A number of orthopaedic and neurovascular tissues (for example, bones, tendons, ligaments, vessels, and nerves) may be damaged due to trauma or disease. When tissues are broken or severed, their repair requires their reattachment, either directly or by means of a graft or device. As these tissues are subject to a variety of forces during limb movement or physiological function, a critical aspect of their repair is the biomechanical state of the repair site. Too much tissue tension (or strain), and the repair or even the tissue itself can fail. Too little tension, and the required biomechanical role for a given tissue may not be achieved.

Currently, the dominant surgical approach to setting repair-site biomechanics is “by feel,” though anatomical knowledge, geometry and proximity of the tissue at the repair site, and physiological measures such as vascular perfusion can certainly inform the repair. We hypothesize that surgical methods may be more reproducible if key biomechanical measures may be easily made during the repair, either immediately prior to repair or as a quality control measure after the repair.

Summary of MAE 156 Project Objectives:

The project objective is to design, prototype, and test key elements of a handheld intra-operative device, which may be used to test mechanical parameters such as strain or tension. Key activities include:

• Critical review of commercial solutions, for benchmarking purposes and to understand surrounding technology.

• Iterative selection and design of 1-2 strategies for prototyping.

• Ex vivo testing of key design features.

• Filing of Intellectual Property disclosure concurrent to final presentation and report.

Project Management - Progress Reports, Risk Reduction, and Schedules