FEMORAL DISPLACEMENT PATTERNS INDUCED BY DIFFERENT PROSTHESIS FIXATION METHODS: A HOLOGRAPHIC STUDY

J. A. Simes 1, J. Monteiro 2, M. A. Vaz 2

1

Dep. Mech. Eng., University of Aveiro, Portugal, 2 Dep. Mech. Eng. Ind. Mang., University of Porto, Portugal
purpose of the study conducted was of comparative nature, therefore no attempt was made to design the test rig to avoid any rigid body motion. To obtain a reasonable amount of fringes, a constant displacement of 0,03 mm was applied. RESULTS: Figure 1 shows a typical fringe pattern at the lateral aspect of the femur. Figure 2 shows the comparison of the displacement field induced by the fixation methods analysed.

INTRODUCTION: Many investigators have studied the stress shielding effect provoked by femoral prostheses. These studies have been mainly performed using the finite element method and the strain gauge technique1,2. Numerical modelling of a press-fit prosthesis is difficult because the correct bone-prosthesis contact area and interference fit value is not accurately known. Therefore, the numerical study of a press-fit boneprosthesis construction has inherent limitations. The strain gauge technique, mostly used in biomechanics, is limited to the information at discrete points on the surface of the femur. Holographic techniques are non-contact experimental techniques, therefore are suitable to study with more realism the fixation of the prosthesis to the surrounding bone media. Within the study presented, the periosteal lateral displacement field on an implanted synthetic femur model was assessed using a holographic experimental set-up. Three different fixation situations with same femoral prostheses were analysed. Firstly, the comparison between a cemented and press-fit fixation methods were studied and the holographic displacement patterns obtained. Titanium and aluminium prostheses were used. The differentiated press-fit interference situations were simulated using an aluminium prosthesis manufactured with inferior dimensions relatively to the titanium one. The aluminium material was used to lower the relative stiffness to that of the composite femur model, but was inserted with a lower press-fit interference, performing as a relatively loose prosthesis, when compared to the titanium press-fit one. METHODS: An implanted synthetic composite femur models of a human femur, made of glass fibre reinforced epoxy and polyurethane foam (Mod. 3103, Pacific Research Labs) and three similar femoral hip prostheses were applied within the study. Two of the prostheses had same dimensions and the aluminium one was machined with an overall difference of 0,1 mm through the stems section. This allowed to induce a less interference pressure when inserted in the femur. A customised jig was designed and constructed to load the intact and implanted femur models. The

Fig. 1: Fringe pattern on the lateral aspect of the intact femur (displacement field).
0.0035 Al_press-fit Al_cemented 0.0025 0.0020 0.0015 Ti_press-fit

0.0030

0.0010 0.0005

22

44

66

88

110

130

axial displacement (mm)

Fig. 1: Displacement pattern at the lateral aspect of the femur. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results evidence that the cemented fixation prosthesis induces a more physiological displacement pattern. In fact, this fixation method provoked a lesser displacement deviation relatively to those observed for the other simulated fixation procedures. The press-fit loose prosthesis showed the highest physiological displacements deviation. REFERENCES: 1Huiskes (1990) J. Biomed. Eng., 11, p. 520. 2Simes et al (2000) J. Med. Phy. & Eng., Vol. 22, N 7, 453-459