Motion analysis for the mobile bearing tka using the knee joint simulator with a parallel link 6-dof actuator

Abstract

Rapid aging of society has aroused a great interest in disorder of knee joints. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA), by which the damaged joints are replaced to artificial ones, could be one of the methods to release the painful knee. However, wear of polyethylene insert frequently shortens the life span of TKA. For estimating the wear of inserts, and consequently improving design of artificial knee joints, adequate method of motion analysis is necessary because knee movement involves complicated combinations of translations and rotations. In this study, we developed a 6-DOF motion simulator for artificial knee joints and analysed three-dimensional motion of polyethylene insert on a mobile bearing TKA.