Abstract
For the monitoring of bone regeneration processes, the instrumentation of the fixation is an increasingly common technique to indirectly measure the evolution of bone formation instead of ex vivo measurements or traditional in vivo techniques, such as X-ray or visual review. A versatile instrumented external fixator capable of adapting to multiple bone regeneration processes was designed, as well as a wireless acquisition system for the data collection. The design and implementation of the overall architecture of such a system is described in this work, including the hardware, firmware, and mechanical components. The measurements are conditioned and subsequently sent to a PC via wireless communication to be in vivo displayed and analyzed using a developed real-time monitoring application. Moreover, a model for the in vivo estimation of the bone callus stiffness from collected data was defined. This model was validated in vitro using elastic springs, reporting promising results with respect to previous equipment, with average errors and uncertainties below 6.7% and 14.04%. The devices were also validated in vivo performing a bone lengthening treatment on a sheep metatarsus. The resulting system allowed the in vivo mechanical characterization of the bone callus during experimentation, providing a low-cost, simple, and highly reliable solution.
Highlights
Regeneration processes are intrinsic mechanisms in bone tissue that commonly appear along human lifetime, during fracture healing, bone remodeling, or growth in children
Oral, or maxillofacial surgery, bone regeneration processes are commonly applied in the treatment of several bony pathologies, e.g., bone disparities, skeletal reconstructions, or hemifacial microsomia [4,5]
The main purpose of this study is to present and validate a fixator capable of adapting to multiple bone regeneration processes, accompanied by an acquisition system optimized for animal experimentation
Summary
Regeneration processes are intrinsic mechanisms in bone tissue that commonly appear along human lifetime, during fracture healing, bone remodeling, or growth in children. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered bone progenitor cells with the ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, the main source of bone tissue [2]. The fate of these MSCs and the type and quality of the regenerated tissue are extensively proven to be sensitive to the mechanical environment, including the loading conditions, the stress distribution, or the fixation stiffness [3]. Oral, or maxillofacial surgery, bone regeneration processes are commonly applied in the treatment of several bony pathologies, e.g., bone disparities, skeletal reconstructions, or hemifacial microsomia [4,5]. Each clinical case requires specific treatments, e.g., fracture healing, distraction
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