Vibro-acoustic characterization of the bone-implant system during insertion

Abstract

The femoral stem primary stability achieved by the impaction of a beam called “ancillary” attached to the implant during its insertion is an important factor of success in cementless surgery. However, surgeons rely on their proprioception, making the process subjective. The use of experimental modal analysis (EMA) without sensor nor probe fixation on the implant or on the bone is a promising non-destructive approach to determine implant stability. This study investigates whether EMA performed directly on a beam, which is temporary fixed to the implant during its insertion, could provide information on the boundary condition, which corresponds to the implant stability. A cementless femoral stem was inserted into 10 bone phantoms of human femurs and EMA was carried out on the ancillary using a dedicated impact hammer for each insertion step. Two bending modes were identified in the frequency range 400–8000 Hz for which the resonance frequency was shown to be sensitive to the insertion step and to the bone-implant interface properties. A significant correlation was obtained between the two modal frequencies and the implant insertion depth (R² = 0.95 ±0.04 and R² = 0.94 ±0.06). This study opens new paths towards the development of noninvasive vibration-based evaluation methods to monitor cementless implant insertion.