Optimizing melt electrowriting prototypes for printing non-medical and medical grade polycaprolactone meshes in prolapse repair

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) arises from insufficient support of female pelvic organs. Synthetic implants used in treatment can cause complications like infections, mesh shrinkage, and tissue erosion, often due to biomechanical compatibility issues. This research aims to optimize printing parameters for a melt electrowriting process using medical grade biodegradable Poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with a pellet extruder. The primary goal is to produce meshes with specific characteristics, including square and diagonal shapes, and filament diameters of 80, 160, and 240 μm. These meshes are evaluated through mechanical tests, comparing their performance with a commercially available mesh and sheep vaginal tissue. The mechanical analysis showed that the commercial mesh was 84% stiffer than sheep vaginal tissue at higher strain levels. Non-medical grade PCL, with 80 μm meshes, closely matched the tissue's mechanical properties, with an 8% variation. Medical-grade PCL exhibited distinct behavior, with the 80 μm square mesh (two layers) showing a 27% variation and the 160 μm diagonal mesh (one layer) displaying the closest fit at 9%. The findings indicate that 3D-printed biodegradable meshes, particularly those printed with medical-grade PCL, may serve as a suitable alternative to mitigate complications associated with commercial implants.