Experimental Investigations on Microcracks in Vibrational and Conventional Drilling of Cortical Bone

Abstract

Bone drilling is widely used in orthopedic surgery. Microcracks will be generated in bone drilling, which may cause fatigue damages and stress fractures. Fresh bovine cortical bones were drilled via vibrational and conventional ways. Drilling operations were performed by a dynamic material testing machine, which can provide the vibration while maintaining uniform feed motion. The drill site and bone debris were observed through scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental results showed that fewer and shorter micro-cracks were formed in vibrational drilling than those formed in conventional way. And the surface morphology of bone debris from two different drilling ways was also quite different. It is expected that vibrational drilling in orthopedic surgery operation could decrease the microdamage to the bone, which could lower the incidence of stress fracture and contribute to the postoperative recovery.

Experimental Study on the Effect of Point Angle on Force and Temperature in Ultrasonically Assisted Bone Drilling

“…In UAD, high frequency vibrations are superimposed on the drill in the drilling direction coupled with rotation of the drill. The technique has been found to reduce the drilling force, torque, bone temperature and micro-cracks in the drilling region and resulted in better surface finish compared to conventional drilling (CD) due to its enhance cutting mechanism [23][24][25]. Ultrasonic vibrations imposed on a plane cutting tool in the cutting direction also produced lower cutting force compared to the conventional cutting [26].…”

Surgical Drill Bit Design and Thermomechanical Damage in Bone Drilling: A Review

“…145,149 The broken drill bit sometimes has to be left in situ because it requires complex procedures to remove the broken part. 78 Moreover, the drilling process could produce microcracks around the drilling hole, 192 which can weaken the grip of the screws, implants, and pins. Consequently, the fracture fixator will be loosened, 198 and therefore, the bone healing process will fail.…”

Quantitative Analysis of Force and Torque in Bone Drilling

“…Lower cutting force was also measured in plane cutting of cortical bone in the presence of imposed vibrations on the cutting tool (Alam et al 2013). Perhaps in response to these findings, some recent studies have proposed ultrasonically-assisted drilling (UAD) of bone to minimize drilling force, torque, temperature, and micro cracks (Alam et al 2011b;Alam et al 2014a;Alam and Silberschmidt 2014;Wang et al 2013). Some studies have also attributed lower force to appropriate drill geometry and drilling parameters (Wiggins and Malkin 1976;Saha et al 1982).…”