Can mathematical models be used to predict hip joint peak contact stress in the clinical studies?

Abstract

Previous results shows high discrepancy between the peak hip contact stress measured experimentally and the peak contact hip stress estimated from mathematical models. In this study, a mathematical model which was previously verified in clinical studies, has been adapted to describe the influence of the local increase in cartilage thickness on the hip to the contact stress distribution. It is shown that a local increase of the hip cartilage thickness increases the hip contact stress in the region of thicker cartilage to the experimentally obtained level. However, the local variations in cartilage thickness do not considerably affect the overall stress distribution. It follows that although the mathematical model cannot predict local peaks of hip contact stress if the cartilage properties are not known, it provides an estimation of the contact stress distribution pattern that proves to be significant in the longterm prediction of the development of the hip. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.