FEM-based compression fracture risk assessment in osteoporotic lumbar vertebra L1

Abstract

This paper presents a finite element method (FEM)-based fracture risk assessment in patient-specific osteoporotic lumbar vertebra L1. The influence of osteoporosis is defined by variation of parameters such as thickness of the cortical shell, the bone volume-total volume ratio (BV/TV), and the trabecular bone score (TBS). The mechanical behaviour of bone is defined using the Ramberg-Osgood material model. This study involves the static and nonlinear dynamic calculations of von Mises stresses and follows statistical processing of the obtained results in order to develop the patient-specific vertebra reliability. In addition, different scenarios of parameters show that the reliability of the proposed model of human vertebra highly decreases with low levels of BV/TV and is critical due to the thinner cortical bone, suggesting high trauma risk by reason of osteoporosis.