Effect of Bath Water Temperature and Immersion Time on Bend Angle During Cartilage Thermoforming

摘要

Much interest has been placed on the permanent reshaping of cartilage for facial reconstructive surgery using lasers. An alternate way to reshape cartilage is to heat the tissue in a water bath while maintaining the specimen in mechanical deformation. The objective of this study was to measure the circular bend angle of a cartilage specimen produced by varying the temperature and immersion time in a water bath. Rectangular cartilage specimens (18 x 4 x 1.5mm) were bent in a semicircular jig (diameter 11mm) and then immersed in a saline bath at temperatures between 50-80°C. The immersion times were 5, 20, 80, 160 and 320 seconds at each temperature. The distance between the ends of each specimen was measured before reshaping and at 15 minutes and 24 hours after immersion in order to calculate the resulting bend angle. The largest bend angle occurred in the specimen immersed in saline at 74°C for 320 seconds, illustrating a definite thermal influence on the physical shape of the cartilage sample. The critical immersion times and bath temperatures where definite shape change occurred were determined.