Date of Degree

2012

Document Type

thesis

Degree Name

MS (Master of Science)

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Thomas D. Brown

Abstract

Intraarticular fractures (IAFs) are a leading cause of posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). Despite the latest orthopaedic treatment techniques, the risk of PTOA after IAFs has remained unacceptably high. In order to progress in this field, a new mechanical insult technique to create a large animal survival model of human IAF was developed. Current IAF models report the initial gravitational potential energy as the fracture energy value. However, this model included a pendulum device that was instrumented to accurately measure the amount of energy absorbed during fracture insult.

After validating the energy absorption measurement with a mechanical testing machine and motion capture system, an in vivo study was conducted. The range of energy absorption measurements during fracture of the eleven animals was 11.7 é31.8 joules, with a mean and standard deviation of 20.8 ± 5.7 joules. On average, the energy absorption measurements were approximately 52 percent of the pre – impact kinetic energy values. These data showed that there was a substantial difference between the energy absorbed during fracture insult and the pre éimpact energy, which provided novel information associated with the pathomechanics of the induced injury.

Pages

xi, 89

Bibliography

86-89

Comments

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Copyright

Copyright 2012 Bryce Diestelmeier