Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
Osteoarthritis (OA) affects more than four million people in the UK alone. Bone marrow lesions (BMLs) are a common feature of subchondral bone pathology in OA. Both bone volume fraction and mineral density within the BML are abnormal. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a potential treatment (bone augmentation) for BMLs on the knee joint mechanics in cases with healthy and fully degenerated cartilage, using finite element (FE) models of the joint to study the effect of BML size.
Methods
FE models of a human tibiofemoral joint were created based on models from the Open Knee project (simtk.org). Following initial mesh convergence studies, each model was manipulated in ScanIP (Synopsys-Simpleware, UK) to incorporate a BML 2mm below the surface of the tibial contact region. Models representing extreme cases (healthy cartilage, no cartilage; BML region as an empty cavity or filled with bone substitution material (200GPa)) were generated, each with different sizes of BML. Models were tested under a representative physiological load of 2kN.
Results
In the absence of cartilage, the stress distribution through the bone was more localized with higher peaks in comparison to models with cartilage. In models with cartilage, BML cavity led to changes in the stress distribution through the tibia, with increasing BML size leading to higher stresses. When the BML region was represented by the substitution material very little difference was seen in comparison to models with no defect at all.
Conclusions
The results of this study illustrate how the cartilage and bone behaviour in the tibiofemoral joint are linked, and that augmentation of a BML with a bone substitute has the potential to reduce adverse loading of the surrounding bone.
Funders
EPSRC, NIHR
Declaration of Interest
(b) declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported:I declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.
