Biomedical subjects

Kristofer J Stewart

Publications and source records attributed to Kristofer J Stewart.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Nonidentical and outlier duty cycles as factors accelerating UHMWPE wear in THA: a finite element exploration.

Wear rate and wear direction vary considerably within total hip arthroplasty (THA) patient cohorts. Third body effects and wide-ranging differences in patient activity levels are two factors suspected of contributing to wear variability. A sliding-distance-coupled contact finite element formulation was used to test the hypothesis that nonidentical duty cycles (differing activities, or change of third body challenge) produce accelerations in polyethylene wear. Effects of nonidentical duty cycles, time-variant femoral head roughening, and outlier gait inputs were investigated. Without femoral head roughening, combination walk/stair-climb wear simulations did not result in appreciably higher volumetric wear than a walk-only simulation, but when a roughened zone was included, walk/stair-climb volumetric wear increased by approximately 57% above that of a similarly roughened walk-only simulation. To investigate time-variant femoral head roughening, wear simulations were begun with femoral head roughening at one location on the femoral head, switching to another location halfway through the simulation. Results varied depending on roughening sites, but cases of substantial increase in wear involved a transient jump in wear rate shortly after the change of head roughening location. Outlier duty cycles were simulated by increasing or decreasing the joint contact force and range of motion inputs, to levels at the 97.5th and 2.5th percentiles of a population of normal subjects. The resulting wear showed an increase or decrease closely proportional to the percentage by which each input (force or range of motion) was changed.

Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip↗

PubMed2006

Design factors influencing performance of constrained acetabular liners: finite element characterization.

Constrained acetabular liners are utilized to deal with the infrequent but devastating problem of recurrent dislocation. While an encouraging treatment of last resort, the clinical performance of contemporary constrained liners has been somewhat mixed. There are multiple factors contributing to this variability, one of which is the limited understanding of the intrinsic mechanical characteristics of these specialty devices. To address this issue, a three-dimensional, materially nonlinear, multi-surface contact finite element model of a representative constrained liner was created. The model was physically validated, and then used for parametric testing to explore the effects of individual design features. The model was exercised for both intra-operative assembly and lever-out dislocation. It was found that the coefficient of friction between the femoral head and the liner substantially affected both the force required to seat the femoral head into the liner during assembly, and the peak moment resisting dislocation (226% increase in assembly force for friction coefficients of 0.2 versus 0.0; 49% reduction in dislocation moment for friction coefficients of 0.013 versus 0.135). As expected, the cup opening radius also had a dominant effect on both maneuvers: decreasing the opening radius from 13.9 to 13.6 mm increased assembly force by 506 N and increased the dislocation moment by over 3.5 N-m, whereas the influence of other design parameters was much more modest.

Acetabulum↗

PubMed2006

Problematic sites of third body embedment in polyethylene for total hip wear acceleration.

A computational model was developed to identify the sites of third body particle embedment in a total hip acetabular component surface that are most problematic in terms of roughening the overpassing regions of the femoral head counterface, leading in turn to most severely accelerated polyethylene wear. The analytical approach used was to calculate loci of acetabular sites that, during the gait cycle, overpass previously documented regions of kinetically most critical femoral head roughening. Instantaneous local contact stress and sliding distance were postulated as factors contributing to the severity of the femoral head scratching/roughening which would be expected, due to otherwise-similar particles embedded along each such acetabular overpass locus. The computational results showed that the location of debris embedment was a potent determinant of the amount of polyethylene wear acceleration expected. The data also showed that the supero-lateral aspect of the acetabular cup is consistently and by far the most problematic area for third body particle embedment.

Acetabulum↗

PubMed2005

Kinetically critical sites of femoral head roughening for wear rate acceleration in total hip arthroplasty.

Polyethylene wear acceleration from (scratching) damage to the femoral head is a recognized hazard from constructs prone to generate third-body debris, but the phenomenon is nebulous and therefore often is subordinated to more direct and immediate considerations. To help delineate tangible quantitative relationships between counterface roughening and accelerated polyethylene wear, an experimentally validated sliding-distance-coupled finite element model of total hip replacement wear was adapted to incorporate regions of localized femoral head roughening. This computational formulation was used systematically to identify the sites on the femoral head for which a given severity of local roughening (parameterized in terms of roughening patch size and tribologic wear coefficient) was most consequential in terms of elevated polyethylene wear. Two such sites, of nominally comparable kinetic importance, were consistently evident throughout a wide range of roughening severities. These critical sites were located quasi-superiorly near the sagittal midline of the head, one slightly anterior and one slightly posterior of the coronal midline.

Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip↗

PubMed2004

Implementing capsule representation in a total hip dislocation finite element model.

Previously validated hardware-only finite element models of THA dislocation h ave clarifiedhow various component design and surgical placement variables contribute to resisting the propensity for implant dislocation. This body of work has now been enhanced with the incorporation of experimentally based capsule representation, and with anatomic bone structures. The current form of this finite element model provides for large deformation multi-body contact (including capsule wrap-around on bone and/or implant), large displacement interfacial sliding, and large deformation (hyperelastic) capsule representation. In addition, the modular nature of this model now allows for rapid incorporation of current or future total hip implant designs, accepts complex multi-axial physiologic motion inputs, and outputs case-specific component/bone/soft-tissue impingement events. This soft-tissue-augmented finite element model is being used to investigate the performance of various implant designs for a range of clinically-representative soft tissue integrities and surgical techniques. Preliminary results show that capsule enhancement makes a substantial difference in stability, compared to an otherwise identical hardware-only model. This model is intended to help put implant design and surgical technique decisions on a firmer scientific basis, in terms of reducing the likelihood of dislocation.

Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip↗

PubMed2002

Spatial distribution of hip capsule structural and material properties.

Contemporary computational models potentially allow the practical incorporation of the effects of a joint capsule on both motion and the loads transmitted to the other parts of the joint. However, the required material properties have not been available for this purpose. To determine these properties we took both hip joints from five fresh-frozen, nondiseased cadavers. Following dissection and potting of the hemi-pelvis, distraction of the intact joint was conducted to measure the structural tangent stiffness of the joint capsule. Anatomical insertion points of the hip capsule were then recorded, and a complete capsulectomy was performed. Once excised, the capsule was sectioned into eight, approximately even sectors, and initial geometrical measurements were recorded for material property calculations. Material properties (i.e., structural tangent stiffness, failure load, ultimate strength, tangent modulus) were calculated using the load-displacement and geometric data collected for each of the sectors. This specimen-to-specimen thickness variability reveals significantly lower (p<0.01) average tangent structural stiffness values in the posterior-inferior portion of the capsule. Explorations of hip stability using numerical models can now be enhanced by incorporation of these experimental capsule data.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Local head roughening as a factor contributing to variability of total hip wear: a finite element analysis.

Large inter-patient variability in wear rate and wear direction have been a ubiquitous attribute of total hip arthroplasty (THA) cohorts. Since patients at the high end of the wear spectrum are of particular concern for osteolysis and loosening, it is important to understand why some individuals experience wear at a rate far in excess of their cohort average. An established computational model of polyethylene wear was used to test the hypothesis that, other factors being equal, clinically typical variability in regions of localized femoral head roughening could account for much of the variability observed clinically in both wear magnitude and wear direction. The model implemented the Archard abrasive/adhesive wear relationship, which incorporates contact stress, sliding distance, and (implicitly) bearing surface tribology. Systematic trials were conducted to explore the influences of head roughening severity, roughened area size, and roughened area location. The results showed that, given the postulated wear factor elevations, head roughening variability (conservatively) typical of retrieval specimens led to approximately a 30 degrees variation in wear direction, and approximately a 7-fold variation in volumetric wear rate. Since these data show that randomness in head scratching can account for otherwise-difficult-to-explain variations in wear direction and wear rate, third-body debris may be a key factor causing excessive wear in the most problematic subset of the THA population.

Acetabulum↗