Comparison of five preservation methods for fascia allograft.

Abstract

Importance: Research on tissue preservation, including cortical bone, skin, nerves, and vessels in glycerol and cortical bone in honey, has shown positive results. On the other hand, relatively few studies have been performed on fascia preservation, and comparisons between different fascia preservation methods remain scarce.

Objective: This in vitro study compared the biomechanical properties of five different methods of preserving fascia lata.

Methods: The control group underwent biomechanical testing immediately after decellularization, while the other five groups were stored in glycerol, honey, deep freezer, lyophilizer, and liquid nitrogen for 30 days. The ultimate load, elongation at failure, and stiffness for each group were determined from a load-elongation curve.

Results: A comparison of the ultimate load showed that the control group had the highest value, followed by the glycerol group. The glycerol group was the only group that did not show a significant difference from the control group, while all the other groups showed a significantly lower ultimate load. A comparison of elongation at failure revealed the glycerol group to have the highest value at failure among all groups and was significantly higher than the deep freeze, honey, and cryopreservation groups.

Conclusions and relevance: Glycerol can be used as an effective method for preserving fascia allografts because the resulting allografts show a similar ultimate load to the control group and the highest mean elongation at failure.