Background Osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) is one of the most common ankle injuries, which will lead to biomechanical changes in the ankle joint and ultimately affect ankle function. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to clarify the effect of talus osteochondral defects on the stability of the ankle joint at different depths. However, no research has been conducted on talus osteochondral defect areas that require prompt intervention. In this research, FEA was used to simulate the effect of the area size of talus osteochondral defect on the stress and stability of the ankle joint under a specific depth defect. Methods Different area sizes (normal, 2 mm* 2 mm, 4 mm* 4 mm, 6 mm* 6 mm, 8 mm* 8 mm, 10 mm* 10 mm, and 12 mm* 12 mm) of the three-dimensional finite element model of osteochondral defects were established. The model was used to simulate and calculate joint stress and displacement of the articular surface of the distal tibia and the proximal talus when the ankle joint was in the heel-strike, midstance, and push-off phases. Results When OLT occurred, the contact pressure of the articular surface, the equivalent stress of the proximal talus, the tibial cartilage, and the talus cartilage did not change significantly with an increase in the size of the osteochondral defect area when the heel-strike phase was below 6 mm * 6 mm. Gradual increases started at 6 mm * 6 mm in the midstance and push-off phases. Maximum changes were reached when the defect area size was 12 mm * 12 mm. The same patterns were observed in the talus displacement. Conclusions The effect of the defect area of the ankle talus cartilage on the ankle biomechanics is evident in the midstance and push-off phases. When the size of the defect reaches 6 mm * 6 mm, the most apparent change in the stability of the ankle joint occurs, and the effect does not increase linearly with the increase in the size of the defect.
(1) Background: Osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) is one of the common ankle injuries, which will lead to biomechanical changes in the ankle joint and ultimately affect the ankle function. The finite element analysis (FEA) was used to clarify the effect of talus osteochondral defects in different depths on the stability of the ankle joint. However, there is no clear research about the area of talus osteochondral defects that should be intervened in time. In this research, FEA is used to simulate the effect of different areas size of talus osteochondral defect on the stress and stability of ankle joint under a certain depth defect.; (2) Methods: The different area size (Normal, 2 mm* 2 mm, 4 mm* 4 mm, 6 mm* 6 mm, 8 mm* 8 mm, 10 mm* 10 mm, 12 mm* 12 mm) of osteochondral defects three-dimensional finite element model was established to simulate and calculate joint stress and displacement of the articular surface of the distal tibia and the proximal talus while the ankle joint was in the push-off phase, midstance phase and heel-strike phase; (3) Results: When OLT occurred, the contact pressure of articular surface, the equivalent stress of the proximal talus, tibial cartilage and talus cartilage did not change significantly with the increase of osteochondral defect area size in heel-strike phase below 6 mm * 6 mm, it increased gradually from 6 mm * 6 mm in midstance phase and push-off phase, and reached the maximum when the defect area size is 12 mm * 12 mm. The talus displacement also has the same tendency.; (4) Conclusions: The effect of cartilage area size defects of the talus on the biomechanics of the ankle is obvious especially in the midstance phase and push-off phase. When the defect size reaches 6 mm * 6 mm, the most obvious change in the stability of the ankle joint occurs, and the effect does not increase linearly with the increase in the depth of the defect.
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