Process of hip joint prosthesis design including bone remodeling phenomenon

The design of hip joint prostheses is very complex process which requires close co-operation between engineers and surgeons. To design a prosthesis of higher durability one has to take natural processes occurring in bone into consideration. In the paper a process of hip joint prosthesis design is described. The design process was performed for a particular patient who suffered from severe trauma of a hip joint. A set of three prostheses was created and then some numerical calculations were carried out with the use of ADINA system. The visco-elastic properties of bone and the bone remodeling phenomenon were taken into consideration, which is a novel approach in prosthesis design. The results of the numerical analyses allowed us to decide which one of the three designed prostheses is the most capable for the patient. This way the shape optimisation process is completed. As a result of it the load acting on the designed prosthesis will be anatomically adopted by the femur. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.