Biomechanical measurements of axial crush injury to the distal condyles of human and synthetic femurs

Few studies have evaluated the 'bulk' mechanical properties of human longbones and even fewer have compared human tissue to the synthetic longbones increasingly being used by researchers. Distal femur fractures, for example, comprise about 6% of all femur fractures, but the mechanical properties of the distal condyles of intact human and synthetic femurs have not been well quantified in the literature. To this end, the distal portions of a series of 16 human fresh-frozen femurs and six synthetic femurs were prepared identically for mechanical testing. Using a flat metal plate, an axial 'crush' force was applied in-line with the long axis of the femurs. The two femur groups were statistically compared and values correlated to age, size, and bone quality. Results yielded the following: crush stiffness (human, 15456728 N/mm; synthetic, 3063 +/- 1243 N/mm; p = 0.002); crush strength (human, 10.3 +/- 3.1 kN; synthetic, 12.9 +/- 1.7 kN; p = 0.074); crush displacement (human, 6.1 +/- 1.8 mm; synthetic, 2.8 +/- 0.3 mm; p = 0.000); and crush energy (human, 34.8 +/- 15.9 J; synthetic, 18.1 +/- 5.7 J; p = 0.023). For the human femurs, there were poor correlations between mechanical properties versus age, size, and bone quality (R-2 <= 0.18), with the exception of crush strength versus bone mineral density (R-2 = 0.33) and T-score (R-2 = 0.25). Human femurs failed mostly by condyle 'roll back' buckling (15 of 16 cases) and/or unicondylar or bicondylar fracture (7 of 16 cases), while synthetic femurs all failed by wedging apart of the condyles resulting in either fully or partially displaced condylar fractures (6 of 6 cases). These findings have practical implications on the use of a flat plate load applicator to reproduce real-life clinical failure modes of human femurs and the appropriate use of synthetic femurs. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to have done such an assessment on human and synthetic femurs.