Biomechanical properties of nasal tissues

Introduction. Plastic rhinosurgery and augmentation rhinoplasty are very relevant today. Especially in relation to patients with congenital saddle deformity of the nasal dorsum, as well as patients with iatrogenic disorders of the nose shape, which dramatically reduce the quality of human life. There are violations of the function of the nose. The purpose of the work.

Purpose. Within the framework of the necessity of performing silicone implantation rhinoplasty, the strength, elastic and hyperelastic properties of the soft tissues of the nasal fascia and periosteum were studied, the dynamic viscosity of the tissues of the nasal fascia and periosteum was evaluated, determining their relaxation properties using elastic, hyperelastic and rheological models.

Methods. Linear, bilinear (with two Young modules), exponential, hyperelastic (neohookean, Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Yeoh, polynomial and Veronda-Westmann) and elastic-viscous (Maxwell) models of biological tissues were used. We used the Mathcad 15.0 computer algebra system and the universal package of interdisciplinary programs ANSYS Multiphysics Software (version 2022 R2). The accuracy of replacing the properties of real tissues with the results of calculations was calculated on the basis of indicators of descriptive statistics (standard deviation, maximum absolute error, maximum relative error and correlation coefficient).

Results. It is proved that the bilinear model for the exact reproduction of the stress-strain curve assumes at the molecular level of tissues an initial linear reaction of elastin fibers, passing at ε=ε_cr into the final linear reaction of the collagen matrix. It was found that the properties of the periosteum (correlation coefficient R=0.9999) and nasal fascia (correlation coefficient R=0.9999) are described most adequately by the 5-parametric polynomial model of the 2nd order and the Yeoh model of the 3rd order (R=0.999 and R=1, respectively), the least accurately by the simple 1-parameter neohookean model (R=0.898 for the periosteum and R=0.905 for the fascia). Among elastic models, the exponential dependence characterizes the behavior of nasal materials quite well.

Conclusion. Biomechanically verified that the periosteum is thicker, stronger and more rigid than the fascia. The established very high viscosity values indicate the slowness of relaxation processes in tissues. The periosteum relaxes tension more slowly, which improves the result of implant fixation. On the contrary, the relaxation time of the periosteum is higher than that of the fascia, from which it is concluded that it is preferable not to cut the periosteum during subcostal implantation.