Medical implants and fabrication of medical implants

Abstract

The present invention discloses a biomechanically compatible implant, wherein arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the the implant are defined to exhibit biomechanical characteristics in accordance with biomechanical characteristics at arbitrary selectable discrete locations of a bodily tissue where the respective arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the implant are configured to be attached. The implant may be configured to repair prolapse in an embodiment. In another embodiment, the implant may be configured to repair urinary incontinence. The present invention further discloses a device for generating a biomechanical characteristics pattern of the bodily tissue and the implant. The present invention further discloses a system for designing and fabricating the biomechanically compatible implant.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A biomechanically compatible implant for providing support to sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues to prevent leakage of urine due to incontinence, the biomechanically compatible implant comprising:
 a linear strip of mesh with a proximal portion, a medial portion and a distal portion, wherein the medial portion is configured to be attached to sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues for providing a supporting force to the sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues, wherein arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the medial portion of the linear strip of mesh that contacts the sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues are defined to exhibit biomechanical characteristics in accordance with biomechanical characteristics at arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues where the respective arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the medial portion are configured to be attached such that the biomechanical characteristics of the medial portion of the linear strip of mesh that contacts the sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues are different at arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the medial portion of the linear strip of mesh;   a first sleeve removably coupled to the proximal portion and configured be removed by pulling away a first elongate member that removably couples the first sleeve with the proximal portion;   a first dilator configured to be attached to an end of the proximal portion of the linear strip of mesh.   
     
     
         2 . The biomechanically compatible implant of  claim 1 , wherein number of arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the medial portion is at least fifty such that the biomechanical characteristics at the arbitrary selectable at least fifty discrete locations of the medial portion of the implant varies in accordance with variations in the biomechanical characteristics of the arbitrary selectable at least fifty discrete locations of the sub-urethral or bladder neck tissues. 
     
     
         3 . The biomechanically compatible implant of  claim 1 , wherein the biomechanical characteristics at the arbitrary selectable discrete locations of the medial portion of the linear strip of mesh are defined based on a combination of parameters comprises pore shape, pore construct, fabricating material, fabrication process, knit orientation, knit pattern, weave pattern, number of strands, number of pores per unit length, and number of pores per unit width. 
     
     
         4 . A device to generate a biomechanically compatible implant pattern for an implant that behaves in accordance with biomechanical characteristics of a bodily tissue, the device comprising:
 a pressure unit for applying a defined pressure to a location on the bodily tissue;   a sensor for detecting a deformation caused by application of the defined pressure;   a data analyzer to correlate values of the deformation and the defined pressure so as to determine a biomechanical characteristic pattern of the bodily tissue in response to the pressure, and   a control unit to define an implant pattern based on the biomechanical characteristic pattern of the bodily tissue such that at an arbitrarily large plurality of discrete spatial coordinates, biomechanical characteristics of the implant conform with biomechanical characteristics at respective spatial locations of the bodily tissue where the respective spatial coordinates of the implant are configured to be positioned.   
     
     
         5 . The biomechanically compatible implant of  claim 4 , wherein number of arbitrarily large plurality of discrete spatial coordinates of the implant is at least fifty. 
     
     
         6 . A system for developing a mesh-based implant, the method comprising:
 a modeling system for generating design models corresponding to the implant using a set of machine learning tools, modeling tools, and data sources acquired from a plurality of sources, wherein one of the data sources include subject's biomechanical characteristics at arbitrarily large number of locations of a bodily tissue where the implant is configured to be attached, wherein the design models are contained in a software file;   an additive manufacturing device configured to develop the implant by depositing layered structures based on the design models contained in the software file readable and executable by the additive manufacturing device, so that, at arbitrarily large number of locations of a so fabricated implant, biomechanical characteristics conform with the biomechanical characteristics of the arbitrarily large number of locations of the bodily tissue where the arbitrarily large number of locations of the printed implant are configured to be attached.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the mesh-based implant is a Y-shaped implant configured to repair prolapse vaginal walls through a sacrocolpopexy procedure. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the mesh-based implant includes an elongate body member configured to support urethral tissues for repairing urinary incontinence.