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Subject-specific knee joint model: Design of an experiment to validate a multi-body finite element model

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Abstract

The availability of a validated subject-specific model of the knee joint would be extremely useful for the orthopaedic surgeon in evaluating the biomechanics of the joint of a patient, especially when suspecting an injury of one or more components.

The aim of this paper was to describe a procedure designed and developed to validate a subject-specific model of the human knee. The proposed approach considers the use of clinical images to create a multi-body finite element model of a healthy knee. The same joint must undergo an experimental test aimed at collecting the data necessary to validate the model predictions. Therefore, the experimental set-up must be designed to monitor all the degrees of freedom of the joint, allowing the replication of the loading conditions in silico with a finite element (FE) model.

At the moment, an animal model is used to verify the accuracy and repeatability of the developed procedure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy

    C. Öhman, D. M. Espino, M. Baleani & M. Viceconti

  2. Engineering Faculty, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    C. Öhman

  3. Asclepios Research Project-INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France

    T. Heinmann & H. Delingette

  4. Div. Medical and Biological Informatics, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

    T. Heinmann

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  1. C. Öhman
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  2. D. M. Espino
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  3. T. Heinmann
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  4. M. Baleani
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  5. H. Delingette
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  6. M. Viceconti
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Correspondence to C. Öhman.

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Öhman, C., Espino, D.M., Heinmann, T. et al. Subject-specific knee joint model: Design of an experiment to validate a multi-body finite element model. Vis Comput 27, 153–159 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-010-0537-8

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