Influence of muscle groups’ activation on proximal femoral growth tendency

Abstract

Muscle and joint contact force influence stresses at the proximal growth plate of the femur and thus bone growth, affecting the neck shaft angle (NSA) and femoral anteversion (FA). This study aims to illustrate how different muscle groups’ activation during gait affects NSA and FA development in able-bodied children. Subject-specific femur models were developed for three able-bodied children (ages 6, 7, and 11 years) using magnetic resonance images. Contributions of different muscle groups—hip flexors, hip extensors, hip adductors, hip abductors, and knee extensors—to overall hip contact force were computed. Specific growth rate for the growth plate was computed, and the growth was simulated in the principal stress direction at each element in the growth front. The predicted growth indicated decreased NSA and FA (of about over a four-month period) for able-bodied children. Hip abductors contributed the most, and hip adductors, the least, to growth rate. All muscles groups contributed to a decrease in predicted NSA (0.01–0.04 and FA (0.004–), except hip extensors and hip adductors, which showed a tendency to increase the FA (0.004–). Understanding influences of different muscle groups on long bone growth tendency can help in treatment planning for growing children with affected gait.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10237-017-0925-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A multi-scale modelling framework combining musculoskeletal rigid-body simulations with adaptive finite element analyses, to evaluate the impact of femoral geometry on hip joint contact forces and femoral bone growth

“…This file was imported to Mimics (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium) to define material properties based on the masks created during the segmentation. Material properties (Fig 2) were chosen to be elastic, isotropic and homogenous, similar to previous studies [15,17]. Seven rows of elements were used to model the growth plate and ten rows of elements above and below the growth plate formed a transition zone with a linearly decreasing elastic modulus from the trabecular bone to the growth plate to represent the mineralizing bone tissue.…”

“…During the FE analysis, femoral condyles positions were fixed in all models. Using hip JCF waveforms from the musculoskeletal simulations, nine sequential load instances were defined similar to Yadav et al [17] (Fig 4). Each muscle force was applied as a concentrated force at the node closest to the point of insertion projected on the FE model.…”

Investigating the mechanical response of paediatric bone under bending and torsion using finite element analysis

“…During the same period, there were a few other FE studies on paediatric bones, with one on infants and the others on older children (6 years and above). Yadav et al (2017) investigated the effect of muscle groups' activation on the growth of femur using MRI-based FE models of femora for three children (aged 6, 7 and 11 years). Both Meng et al (2017) and Angadi et al 2015 investigated the accidental injury of older children (e.g.…”

Physiologic and Pathologic Development of the Infantile and Adolescent Hip Joint: Descriptive and Functional Aspects

“…In 1892, Julius Wolff 21 was the first to state the idea that the shapes of bone and joints in some way reflect their mechanical loading during life. With regard to the hip, since this time some historical 22,23 and many actual mechanobiological [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and paleontological 34,35 studies have dealt with the so-called Wolff's law. The mechanobiological concept that function influences external shape and internal architecture of bones and joints in the meantime has been supported by much experimental and observational data.…”

“…54 Depending on the view about the importance of the greater trochanter apophysis, the pathogenesis of spastic hip decentration is much debated. 24,25,28,30,31,55,56 Children who suffer exclusively from cerebral palsy and not from a simultaneous congenital dysplasia of the hip typically have normally configured hip joints without any pathologic findings in the first months. As soon as the weakness of the spastic muscle becomes noticeable, 57 a typical cascade of pathomechanisms develop.…”