Assessment of the fracture risk of proximal porcine femurs with simulated lesions using a fracture prediction method based on beam theory

摘要

Introduction: Current methods of diagnosing bone diseases like avascular necrosis (AVN) are subjective and no reliable assessment of the fracture risk is available. AVN leads to an interruption of the blood supply, which results in the death of bone tissue and its collapse if left untreated. A fracture prediction tool is needed to help clinicians find the most suitable treatment. One route to finding the strength of bones, including the femur, can be the utilisation of structural mechanics, where bone is a structural member subjected to load. Ohzono et al. (1991) reported that collapse of the femoral head most often occurs when the lesion location is in the weight bearing area. Therefore lesions lateral to the fovea appear to be most critical. We hypothesized that the developed fracture prediction tool would be able to identify the fracture risk from these critical lesions. The aim of this study was to analyse porcine femurs affected by simulated AVN lesions to understand loading on subsequent failure of bone as well as the assessment of geometric and material parameters on fracture risk.