An Automated System for Reactive Accelerated Aging of Implant Materials with In-Situ Testing.

The efficacy of implantable medical devices is limited by the longevity of devices in the body environment. Due to the aqueous and mobile-ion rich environment of tissue, robust and long-lasting encapsulation materials are critical for chronic implants. Assessing the reliability of medical devices is commonly performed through saline soak tests with reactive oxidative species at elevated temperatures and lifetime data are fit to an Arrhenius model to predict lifetime under physiological conditions.