A Comparison of Acoustic Emission in Cadaveric Specimens and Artificial Sawbones During Surgical Screw Implants

摘要

The overtightening of cancellous surgical screws is a major problem for orthopaedic surgeons, especially inexperienced ones. This problem is made worse still when the patient suffers from osteoporosis, which significantly reduces the density of the bone. Overtightening a screw leads to stripping of the bone and potential complications to surgery leading to increased recovery time and potential expense to the health organisation. Acoustic Emission (AE) has previously been investigated to monitor the insertion of such screws into artificial Sawbones. This paper presents the testing of two sizes of surgical screws into both artificial Sawbones and cadaveric femurs monitored for AE using piezoelectric sensors. The results show that there are some significant differences between the AE given off from the two structures when the energy and frequency of the waveforms are analysed.