Manufacturers and regulatory agencies share a common goal of having safe and effective total knee arthroplasty (TKA) products available in the global marketplace. Several preclinical methods of testing TKA designs, inclusive of virtual computational models and physical laboratory wear simulations, are employed to predict polymer tibial insert damage patterns. However, the latter is criticized for poor clinical correlation, long testing times, large expense and the difficulty in providing meaningful comparisons with other clinically successful designs. This handout describes a computational modeling experience dating back 16 years for over 45 TKA designs where predicted polymer insert damage patterns have correlated well with physical contact area and stress measurements, laboratory wear simulation and clinical retrievals, suggesting an alternative pre-clinical pathway of evaluating these systems.
Preclinical Computational Models: Predictors of Tibial Insert Damage Patterns in TKA
Mar 8, 2011 | Knee