A surrogate mechanostatistical microstructural model to inform whole hip cortical bone remodelling

Abstract

Multiscale models of bone remodelling which incorporate clinically important features at a wide range of spatial scales are computationally intractable. In addition, there is a large gap in existing bone remodelling literature which deals with Haversian-level cortical bone remodelling behaviour and its effect on whole organ bone strength. In this study, we present an integration between continuum mechanics and surrogate modelling as an efficient circumvention to the problem of intractability, linked with an intricate 3D cortical bone remodelling algorithm which captures realistic microanatomical features at the Haversian level. The surrogate model predicted clear differentiation in long-term bone strength changes in clinically significant cases with extremely high computational efficiency.