Modelación y simulación de sistemas biomecánicos acoplados utilizando el método de elementos finitos. Aplicaciones en ortopedia

Abstract

Hip replacement, also known as hip arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure in which hip joint is replaced by an artificial implant. It application is associated to different kind of diseases such as bone arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and hip fractures. Modeling of biomechanical systems using the Finite Element Method (FEM) becomes in a powerful tool for orthopedics specialist in order to predict the prosthesis behavior under different circumstances. Also those models can contribute to evaluate the influence of different parameters in the successfully prosthesis lifetime as a computational predictive technique before a surgical intervention. Geometrical model of the femoral bone considering cortical and spongeous tissue domains were obtained from medical images and well dimensional standards establishes in orthopedics using Splines and NURBS curves and geometrical model of the prosthesis stem is obtained using CAD Design tools. As a relevant and important result, a Three-Dimensional (3D) coupled structure-structure FEM model of the femoral bone considering cortical and spongeous bone is presented and also is implemented a 3D FEM model with a prosthesis stem inserted which could be very helpful in the study of hip pros-thesis biomechanical behaviour. © 2013 Springer.