STIFFNESS MODULUS CHANGES DURING TIBIAL FRACTURE HEALING: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSES

摘要

Post-fracture bone mineral loss is a well documented phenomenon with unclear physiological origins. The resultant loss in bone mineral adversely affects the mechanical properties of the remaining intact cortical bone. The present study explores the influence of these post-traumatic changes in bone mineral density on finite element analyses of healing human tibial fractures. It is suggested that the utilization of callus mechanical properties normalized to that of "normal" cortical bone in the numerical analyses of fracture healing can lead to erroneous results.