Creation 3-D FE Model of an Osteoporotic Human Femur
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Authors
Almutairi, Mutlaq
Issue Date
Apr 2012
Type
Journal Article
Peer-Reviewed
Peer-Reviewed
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This paper researches the development of a finite element model for a cadaveric human osteoporotic femur.
The author is engaged in a study of determining ways of extracting information in vitro from human
osteoporotic and intact femur to characterize osteoporosis femur numerically. The finite element model
involves stress analysis, and stress reduction through the introduction of auxiliary holes (i.e. Stress Relief
Hole theory) in the vicinity of the osteoporotic region with minimal surgical intervention. The model was
based on an Osteoporotic 68 year woman femur was derived from quantitative computed topography images
CT data. The importance of this research stems from the fact that in United States, osteoporosis leads to more
than 300,000 hip fractures annually. The developed finite element model of a cadaver femur neglects the
influence of the joints adjacent to the human femur and the surrounding tissue, i.e. skin, muscles souring
thigh and ligaments. The principal stresses around the affected region of the Osteoporotic femur condyles
were computed. A stress relief hole has been introduced near posterior-medial condyle, thus the stresses
around the defect “Osteoporotic” area have been redistributed to the rest of the femur. Thereby, the Von
Mises Stress values in the vicinity of the Osteoporotic region were lowered