Statistical model of the knee

Started: 2nd October 2008
Ended: 30th September 2011
Research Team: Francis Galloway, Prasanth Nair
Investigators: Mark Taylor

Overview. Joint replacements are a common treatment for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or fractures of the knee. In the UK, the number of primary total knee replacements has risen from 28,000 in 2004 to over 73,000 in 2008. This dramatic increase in procedures means that there is a need to assess the performance of an implant design in the general population.

This project aims to carry out a large scale design comparison finite element (FE) study of the tibial tray. This study will likely use 3-6 designs for which there is published clinical survivorship data. Currently, a principal component analysis (PCA) based statistical shape and intensity (SSI) model has been developed to to generate a population of tibiae, capturing both geometric and modulus variability. Using the same analysis technique, a statistical model (SM) of walking gait was used to create the knee forces for each model. A workflow was developed in ZIBAmira (http://amira.zib.de) to automatically position and implant the tibial tray in each tibiae. An FE model was then generated for use in a large scale study.

Computational Modelling Group

Statistical model of the knee

Categories