Relationship between high intra-abdominal pressure and compliance of the pelvic floor support system in women without pelvic organ prolapse: A finite element analysis

Abstract

Previous studies mainly focused on the relationship between the size of the prolapse and injury to the supporting tissues, but the strain and stress distributions of the supporting tissues as well as high-risk areas of injury are still unknown. To further investigate the effect of supporting tissues on organs and the interactions between organs, this study focused on the relationship between high intra-abdominal pressure and the compliance of the pelvic floor support system in a normal woman without pelvic organ prolapse (POP), using a finite element model of the whole pelvic support system. A healthy female volunteer (55 years old) was scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during rest and Valsalva maneuver. According to the pelvic structure contours traced by a gynecologist and anatomic details measured from dynamic MRI, a finite element model of the whole pelvic support system was established, including the uterus, vagina with cavity, cardinal and uterosacral ligaments, levator ani muscle, rectum, bladder, perineal body, pelvis, and obturator internus and coccygeal muscles. This model was imported into ANSYS software, and an implicit iterative method was employed to simulate the biomechanical response with increasing intra-abdominal pressure. Stress and strain distributions of the vaginal wall showed that the posterior wall was more stable than the anterior wall under high intra-abdominal pressure. Displacement at the top of the vagina was larger than that at the bottom, especially in the anterior–posterior direction. These results imply potential injury areas with high intra-abdominal pressure in non-prolapsed women, and provide insight into clinical managements for the prevention and surgical repair plans of POP.