Date of Award

12-2020

Degree Name

MS in Mechanical Engineering

Department/Program

Mechanical Engineering

College

College of Engineering

Advisor

Mohammad Noori

Advisor Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor College

College of Engineering

Abstract

The total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has become one of the most successful procedures in all of medicine, with an average of over 966,000 operations performed a year. Since its introduction in 1968, the TKA’s surgical process and implant designs have continuously been improved to increase survivability. However, the need for a revision TKA – due to aseptic loosening – continues to be a problematic aspect of the procedure. Stress shielding induced by different design parameters of the implant has generated controversy in the determination of an ideal configuration. The purpose of this study is to investigate how implant design parameters – fixation technique, stem geometry, cement stiffness, and interface condition – affect the stress shielding within the tibia, and to find an optimal combination of designs that mitigates stress shielding. A CT scan of a tibia was used to simulate multiple configurations of TKAs for finite element analysis in ABAQUS. Stress shielding was assessed by taking the average minimum principal stress of different regions at interval cuts along the depth of the tibia. The results concluded a short, full-cement stem to be the ideal combination of stem length and fixation technique, high-stiffness cement to be ideal for hybrid cements, low-stiffness cement to be ideal for full cements, and a sliding friction interface to be ideal for all models.

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