Quantitative and FEM analysis of damage to the articular cartilage of the osteoarthritis knee

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyze the volume of damage to the tibial plateau of a varus deromed osteoarhrtic knee. Based on radiographic diagnostic, the analyzed knee corresponded to the third stage of the Kellgren-Lawrence classification, where the varus deformity was 15 degrees. After total knee arthroplasty, the resected tibial plateau was analyzed. The scan of the tibial plateau was performed using an Artec Spider 3D scanner, and the point cloud reconstruction was performed using Geomagic Design X software. The volume model of the tibial plateau was generated in Catia V5 R21 software.Within this software, the boundary zone of the damaged and undamaged part of the tibial plateau separated by the 3D spline was detected. Filling the boundary zone with a NURBS surface provides an approximation of the original shape and volume of the undamaged plateau. In the results, the total area of damage to the volume of the tibial plateau is defined and is 2023.6mm2, while the area of damage alone is 1209.9mm2. In addition to the surface parameters, the value of the damaged volume was determined, which is 1.74ml, that is, the total mass of the damage cartilage is 0.012kg. Analyzing the volume damage of the tibial plateau as well as the FEM analysis of the same can be of high importance in terms of establishing the correlation of radiographic and intraoperative findings in degenerative damaged knees.