Combination of musculoskeletal and wear models to investigate the effect of daily living activities on wear of hip prostheses

Abstract

Numerical wear predictions are gaining increasing interest in many engineering applications, as they allow to simulate complex operative conditions not easily replicable in the laboratory. As far as hip prostheses are concerned, most of the wear models in the literature are based on the simulation of gait (recommended also in experimental wear tests), since gait is considered the most frequent and important motor task to recover after arthroplasty. However, since joint prostheses have been increasingly implanted in younger people, high loads and potentially severe conditions, e.g. due to sporting activities, should also be considered for a more reliable wear assessment of these implants. In this study, we propose a profitable combination of musculoskeletal and analytical wear modelling for the prediction of wear caused by common daily activities in metal-on-plastic hip arthroplasties. Several motion analysis data available in the literature (walking, fast walking, lunge, squat, stair negotiation) were selected and the effects of such motor tasks on prosthesis wear were investigated, both separately and in combination. Additionally, for comparative purposes, wear prediction for simplified gait conditions prescribed by the ISO 14242 standard, were also considered. Results suggest that this latter case produces lower wear depth and volume with respect to a relatively demanding combination of the selected daily activities. The preliminary results of the present study represent a first step towards the auspicious goal of validating the proposed procedure for in silico trials of hip arthroplasties.

Understanding the role of head size and neck length in micromotion generation at the taper junction in total hip arthroplasty

“…Conversely to the HCF, which were directly measured in vivo thanks to the development of instrumented implants 35 , to date, the trajectory of the hip contact point during daily activities can be only computed by using musculoskeletal models. In this regard, looking at the contact location computed in this study for the stance phase, an arc path located apically in the anterolateral region of the head was observed, which is qualitatively in agreement with the literature 34 , 57 , 58 . Also, it was observed that different offsets led to similar contact trajectories, according to findings reported by De Pieri et al 56 .…”

“…, ISO, ASTM) or experimental studies based on instrumented prostheses. In the first case, it has been shown that standards may underestimate or simplify in vivo loads 34 , 35 . In the second case, researchers are compelled to use the application points reported in the studies, such as the center of the femoral head.…”

A review of advances in tribology in 2020–2021

“…The advantage of the computational modelling was shown in parametric analyses for the design parameters of the hip [667] and the loading/motion in the knee [668]. Further applications of the computational modelling were made to investigate the effect of different daily activities of the hip [669] and wear of the lateral and medial compartments in the knee [670]. A wear model with the consideration of lubrication was developed in Ref.…”

On the estimation of hip joint loads through musculoskeletal modeling

“…Indeed, JRFs can provide valuable insights into movement disorders such as cerebral palsy (Steele et al, 2012) or into degenerative articular diseases such as osteoarthritis (Kumar et al, 2013). They are also important to define the loading conditions for preclinical experimental tests on artificial joints (Affatato and Ruggiero, 2019;Bergmann et al, 2016;Heller et al, 2005), or they could serve as an input to finite-element models aimed at evaluating wear processes in joint implants (Lin et al, 2018;Mattei et al, 2021;Ruggiero et al, 2018) or at predicting bone adaptations (Geraldes and Phillips, 2010).…”