2023 Volume 23 Issue 4 Pages 290-295
To evaluate in vivo contact behavior and relative sliding movement between the femoral and tibial components using a 2-D to 3-D image matching technique, we developed a method to determine the contact points in a time series from the amount of interference between the tibial and femoral component models, and evaluated the relative contact distance from the contact points in consecutive time frames. This method was applied to three types of knee prostheses with different geometries, and the relative contact travel distance and contact depth distributions between the femoral component and tibial insert were obtained during the weight-bearing knee flexion. At the same time, the relative motion of the femoral component to the tibial insert was evaluated by measuring the change in the position of the approximate sphere center of internal and external condyles as kinematics evaluation. The contact travel distance and contact depth distributions and the relative motion of the femoral component were considered to be influenced by the insert geometry.
