Thermomechanics of Interfaces and Living Tissues

Description

After joint arthroplasty, mechanical and thermal problems at the interface are very sensitive to minor changes of contacting boundaries of the bone, cement and implants. This sensitivity is increased by thermoelastic distortion. It may have important consequence of the longterm reliability of the implant anchorage, particularly on the generation of microcraks within the cement mantle.

interface cement

Orthopaedic cement debris at the
cemented bone-implant interface
(After E Charriere et al., 1998)

Some biological complications might be related to the heat generated by the exothermic polymerization of the orthopaedic cement. Bone necrosis at the bone-cement interface may occur during and after the surgical implantation.

interface temperature

Temperature distribution at the cemented bone- femoral implant
interface after polymerization (cement thickness : 3 mm, 5 mm)
(After Ramaniraka and Rakotomanana, 2004)

This may induce bone resorption at the bone-cement interface, leading implant lose. To name but several, stem temperature, cement temperature, polymerization temperature, thermoelastic properties of bone, stem surface, and their evolution, cement and stem including the shrinkage stresses of the cement, certainly affect the quality of the anchorage.

As a starting point, accurate calculation of the bone-implant relative micromotions and interfacial stresses becomes a keypoint for any quantitative analysis of the mechanical environnement acting on the bone tissue end cells. The purpose of this topic research was to present theoretical models and computational methods to analyse the fixation of orthopedic implants.

In addition to thermomechanics aspects, the evolution of living tissue properties at the interface also plays important role for estimating the long-term evolution of orthopaedic implant anchorage. To this end,  model of tissue differentiation at the bone-implant interface is proposed assumingthat that the mechanical environment determines the tissue differentiation. The stimulus chosen is related to the bone-implant relative micromotions and interfacial stress transfer.

Selected references

Rakotomanana LR, Ramaniraka NA. Thermomechanics of bone-implant interfaces after cemented joint arthroplasty: theoretical models and computational aspects, in Computational Bioengineering: Current Trends and Applications, World scientific,  Imperial College Press, pp185 - 214, 2004.

Peter B, Ramaniraka N, Zambelli PY, Rakotomanana L, and Pioletti DP. Peri-implant bone remodeling after total hip replacement combined with systemic alendronate treatment: a finite element method analysis. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 7: pp 73-78, 2004.

Buechler Ph, Pioletti DP, Rakotomanana LR, Biphasic constitutive laws for biological interface evolution, Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, 4, 239-249, 2003.

Pioletti DP, Mueller J, Rakotomanana LR, Corbeil J, and Wild E. Effect of micro-mechanical stimulations on osteoblasts: development of a device simulating the mechanical situation at the bone-implant interface, Journal of Biomechanics, vol 36/1, pp 131-135, 2002.

Ramaniraka NA, Rakotomanana LR, Leyvraz PF. The fixation of cemented femoral component: Effects of the stem stiffness, cement thickness and cement-bone rugosity, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery-B, vol. 82-B, 2, pp 297-303, 2000.

Rubin PJ, Rakotomanana RL, Leyvraz PF, Zysset PK, Curnier A, Heegaard JH. Frictional interface micromotions and anisotropic stress distribution in a femoral total hip component, Journal of Biomechanics, 26, 6, pp 725-739, 1993.

Rakotomanana RL, Leyvraz PF, Curnier A, Heegaard JH, Rubin PJ. A finite element model for evaluation of tibial prosthesis-bone interface in total knee replacement, Journal of Biomechanics, 25, 12, pp 1413-1424, 1992.