Computer Aided Finite Element Simulation of the Developed Driller System for Bone Drilling Process in Orthopedic Surgery

Heat reveals during the bone drilling operations in orthopedic surgery because of friction between bone and surgical drill bit. The heating causes extremely important damages in bone and soft tissues. The heating has a critical threshold and it is known as 47 degrees C. If bone temperature value exceeds 47 degrees C, osteonecrosis occurs in bones and soft tissues. Many factors such as surgical drill bit geometry and material, drilling parameters, coolant has important roles for the temperature rise. Many methods are used to decrease the temperature rise. The most effective method among them is to use the coolant internally. Numeric simulations of a new driller system to avoid the overheating during the orthopedic operating processes were performed in this study. The numerical simulation with/without coolant was also performed using the finite element based software. Computer aided simulation studies were used to measure the bone temperatures occurred during the bone drilling processes. The outcomes from the simulations were compared with the experimental results. A good temperature level agreement between the experimental results and FEA simulations was found during the bone drilling process.