Abstract
Fracture-dislocation of proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints caused by impact loadings is one of common injuries in finger joints. It seems that the propagation of stress wave in the joints is strongly affected by the thickness of articular cartilage. The influence of thickness of cartilage on the impulsive stress in PIP joints is therefore studied using the dynamic finite element method in the present paper. The thin cartilage layer causes the stress concentration in the subchondral bone. The influence becomes remarkable when the thickness is less than a quarter of normal thickness, indicating that the risk of fracture is high when the cartilage has worn out.
