Despite recent need-based advances in orthopedic scaffold design, current implants are unsuitable as "total" scaffold replacements. Both mechanical requirements of stiffness/strength and biological stipulations dictating cellular behavior (attachment, differentiation) should be included. The amount of mechanical stimulation in the form of stresses, strains, and energies most suitable toward implant design is presently unknown. Additionally unknown is if whole-bone optimization goals such as uniform and non-uniform driving forces are applicable to a scaffold-bone interface. At the very least, scaffolds ready for implantation should exhibit mechanical distributions (dependent on loading type) on the surface within the typical mechanical usage window. Scaffold micro-architectures can be strategically shifted into that window.
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