Affiliations 

  • 1 Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pekan, Malaysia
Artif Organs, 2019 Jul;43(7):E152-E164.
PMID: 30805945 DOI: 10.1111/aor.13444

Abstract

The mismatch between stiffness of the femoral dense stem and host bone causes complications to patients, such as aseptic loosening and bone resorption. Three-dimensional finite-element models of homogeneous porous (HGP) and functionally graded porous (FGP) stems incorporating body-centered cubic (BCC) structures are proposed in this article as an alternative to the dense stems. The relationship between the porosity and strut thickness of the BCC structure was developed to construct the finite-element models. Three levels of porosities (20%, 50%, and 80%) were modeled in HGP and FGP stems. The porosity of the stems was decreased distally according to the sigmoid function (n = 0.1, n = 1 and n = 10) with 3 grading exponents. The results showed that FGP stems transferred 120%-170% higher stresses to the femur (Gruen zone 7) as compared to the solid stem. Conversely, the stresses in HGP and FGP stems were 12%-34% lower than the dense stem. The highest micromotions (105-147 µm) were observed for stems of 80% overall porosity, and the lowest (42-46 µm) was for stems of 20% overall porosity. Finally, FGP stems with a grading exponent of n = 10 resulted in an 11%-28% reduction in micromotions.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.