Accurate 3D Reconstruction of Subject-Specific Knee Finite Element Model to Simulate the
Articular Cartilage Defects
DONG Yue-fu (董跃福), HU Guang-hong (胡广洪), ZHANG Luo-lian (张罗莲), HU Yang (胡 杨) DONG Ying-hai (董英海), XU Qing-rong
(徐卿荣)
(1. Department of Orthopaedics, Renji Hospital,
Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127,
China; 2. Department of Plasticity Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong
University, Shanghai 200030, China)
Abstract Abstract: The biomechanical relationship between
the articular cartilage defect and knee osteoarthritis (OA) has not
been clearly defined. This study presents a 3D knee finite element
model (FEM) to determine the effect of cartilage defects on the
stress distribution around the defect rim. The complete knee FEM,
which includes bones, articular cartilages, menisci and ligaments,
is developed from computed tomography and magnetic resonance images.
This FEM then is validated and used to simulate femoral cartilage
defects. Based on the obtained results, it is confirmed that the 3D
knee FEM is reconstructed with high-fidelity level and can
faithfully predict the knee contact behavior. Cartilage defects
drastically affect the stress distribution on articular cartilages.
When the defect size was smaller than 1.00 cm2, the stress
elevation and redistribution were found undistinguishable. However,
significant stress elevation and redistribution were detected due to
the large defect sizes (≥1.00 cm2. This alteration of
stress distribution has important implications relating to the
progression of cartilage defect to OA in the human knee joint.
Received: 12 January 2011
Published: 29 October 2011
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81071235) and the Medicine and Engineering Interdisciplinary Fund of Shangha Jiaotong University (No. YG2010MS26)
