Abstract
The prediction of lower limb muscle and contact forces may provide useful knowledge to assist the clinicians in the diagnosis as well as in the development of appropriate treatment for musculoskeletal disorders. Research studies have commonly estimated joint contact forces using model-based muscle force estimation due to the lack of a reliable contact model and material properties. The objective of this present study was to develop a Hertzian integrated contact model. Then, in vivo elastic properties of the Total Knee Replacement (TKR) implant were identified using in vivo contact forces leading to providing reliable material properties for modeling purposes. First, a patient specific rigid musculoskeletal model was built. Second, a STL-based implant model was designed to compute the contact area evolutions during gait motions. Finally, a Hertzian integrated contact model was defined for the in vivo identification of elastic properties (Young’s modulus and Poisson coefficient) of the instrumented TKR implant. Our study showed a potential use of a new approach to predict the contact forces without knowledge of muscle forces. Thus, the outcomes may lead to accurate and reliable prediction of human joint contact forces for new case study.
Highlights
Total Knee Replacement (TKR) implant has been commonly prescribed for patients with severe knee joint damage associated with progressive pain and impaired function [1, 2]
It is important to emphasize that the knee contact force behaviors are activity-specific and the optimal design of the TKR may lead to maximizing the clinical outcomes
For the first time, computational rigid musculoskeletal models, used to facilitate the surgical and functional rehabilitation treatments of the musculoskeletal disorders, may be evaluated for their predictive capacities related to muscle force estimation and knee contact load by using these available experimental data [14, 15]
Summary
Total Knee Replacement (TKR) implant has been commonly prescribed for patients with severe knee joint damage (e.g., osteoarthritis) associated with progressive pain and impaired function [1, 2]. For the first time, computational rigid musculoskeletal models, used to facilitate the surgical and functional rehabilitation treatments of the musculoskeletal disorders, may be evaluated for their predictive capacities related to muscle force estimation and knee contact load by using these available experimental data [14, 15]. These models may be potentially accepted in a clinical routine procedure in the future [9, 16]. An open and free access database (http://www.orthoload.com/) of the orthopedic implant loads was provided leading to promoting extensive research activities in this field of study
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