Knee Implant Study and Evaluation With Axiomatic Design Method

Abstract

People from all around the globe get their knees injured every day either because of severe sport accidents or because of simple misstepping. Their lives are about to change drastically and dramatically. The pain and the limitation of their movements becomes an obstacle and treatment with painkillers only postpones the problem. In these cases, medical doctors suggest Total Knee Replacement surgery, in which a knee implant replaces the damaged parts of the human injured knee in order to recover partially or fully the normal motion of the knee and therefore the everyday activities of the person in need. In over 95% of the patients who underwent a Total Knee Replacement surgery, the pain was overcome in sort amount of time, a high percentage of the kinematics of the knee were brought back to normal, and the patients were able to continue their lives. In this paper, the main purpose is to study the knee mechanics, to deconstruct the kinematics and dynamics of this complex system, to develop a new, ambitious knee implant design for severe accidents, perform simulation tests and evaluate it by the rules of the Axiomatic Design Method.