Implantable sensor technology: measuring bone and joint biomechanics of daily life in vivo

Abstract

Stresses and strains are major factors influencing growth, remodeling and repair of musculoskeletal tissues. Therefore, knowledge of forces and deformation within bones and joints is critical to gain insight into the complex behavior of these tissues during development, aging, and response to injury and disease. Sensors have been used in vivo to measure strains in bone, intraarticular cartilage contact pressures, and forces in the spine, shoulder, hip, and knee. Implantable sensors have a high impact on several clinical applications, including fracture fixation, spine fixation, and joint arthroplasty. This review summarizes the developments in strain-measurement-based implantable sensor technology for musculoskeletal research.

Embedded piezoelectrics for sensing and energy harvesting in total knee replacement units

“…The first peak correlates to the impact force from the heel striking the ground; the second peak correlates to the maximum force experienced by the knee joint as weight is transferred from one leg to the other. In D'Lima et al 16 , peak forces are given as 2.5-2.8 times body weight for a normal walking gait. These numbers correlate closely to the force profile generated with OpenSim.…”

Recent developments on intramedullary nailing: a biomechanical perspective

“…The acquired feedback data will not only guarantee a safer patient recovery process (e.g., personalized rehabilitation strategies and identification of implant failure) but will also contribute to continuous intramedullary nail design improvement. The information obtained will also be used to improve the reliability of clinically representative finite‐element models with increased efficiency and performance assessment of current and upcoming intramedullary nail designs …”

“…The information obtained will also be used to improve the reliability of clinically representative finite-element models with increased efficiency and performance assessment of current and upcoming intramedullary nail designs. [117][118][119][120]…”

CORR Insights®: Which Sport Activity Levels Are Achieved in Patients After Resection and Endoprosthetic Reconstruction for a Proximal Femur Bone Sarcoma?

“…While this may be relatively straightforward for cemented implants, it would be considerably more difficult for cementless fixation, as viable boneimplant interface is necessary to reproduce in vivo circumstances. Implantable sensor technology [3] is available today and may be considered for tumor implants, for which there are no data at this time. Scientific societies remain instrumental for collaborative projects aimed at collecting data prospectively by welldesigned trials, which might also consider randomizing different postoperative physical therapy regimens to investigate functional outcomes.…”