Numerical investigations of the strain adaptive bone remodelling in the periprosthetic canine femur

After surgical treatment of severe hip diseases with artificial joint prostheses aseptic loosening of the implants can occur. Unphysiologic load distribution in the periprosthetic femur and stress shielding by the prosthesis can result in bone remodelling processes. In particular a cutback of the bone mass is followed by an aseptic loosening of the prosthesis. In this context the understanding of bone remodelling processes in the prothetically treated femur is of outstanding interest for the optimisation of canine hip joint prostheses in the future. Therefore the main aim of this sudy was the numerical investigation on the change in the load distribution in the canine periprosthetic femur and the resulting bone remodelling after implantation of the cemented stem Biomchanique(R). The investigations within this study were carried out using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The calculated bone density of the periprosthetic femur and the evolution of the mass loss show relevant stress shielding areas in different analysis regions. Therefore possible regions of aseptic loosening are indicated particularly in the proximo-medial femur. The here demonstrated numerical results are in agreement with clinical findings. For this reason the FEA-based method is a valuable tool for the prediction of bone remodelling processes.