The biomechanical effect of damage on the pelvic floor muscles behavior

Pelvic floor dysfunction is closely associated with vaginal childbirth due to trauma to structures of the pelvic floor during the process. Therefore knowing the biomechanical effect of damage on the pelvic floor muscles behavior will allow to better understand the onset of these disorders. In this regard, a constitutive model with introduction of damage variables to describe the behavior of the pelvic floor muscles under large deformations is proposed and the performance of the constitutive model is tested. Although the model characterized the typical stress-strain behavior observed in biological soft tissues during both loading-unloading test analysis, experimental data on damage development is needed to optimize the onset of damage and its evolution both for extracellular matrix and muscle fibers.