title: Computational modelling of bone fracture healing under partial weight-bearing exercise.
abstract: A great deal of evidence suggests that partial weight-bearing exercise plays an important role in bone fracture healing. However, current physiotherapy program tends to follow the "Let's try it and see" strategy due to the lack of a fundamental understanding of in vivo mechanical environment required for the better healing outcomes. The purpose of present study is to develop an innovative framework to predict the healing outcomes as a result of post-surgical physical therapy. The raw acceleration data corresponding to a series of walking tests is firstly captured by ActiGraph accelerometers, and then used as input to theoretically estimate the peak ground reaction force (PGRF) and peak loading rate (PLR). Finally, the healing outcomes as a result of different walking speeds are predicated based on the interfragmentary movement (IFM) measured by using mechanical testing. The results show that PGRF and PLR are important factors for the callus tissue differentiation at the early stage of healing. The developed model could potentially allow the design of effective patient specific post-surgical physical therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Electronic address: lihzhang@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lihai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Electronic address: s.miramini@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miramini
authors.affiliation: The Epworth Hospital, Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia. Electronic address: orthovic@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia. Electronic address: peter.ebeling@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Children's Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia. Electronic address: david.little@health.nsw.gov.au.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Little
authors.affiliation: Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Electronic address: yiyang@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Nanao People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518121, P R China. Electronic address: lgnayy@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D003198:Computer Simulation; D015444:Exercise; D017102:Fracture Healing; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D016474:Weight-Bearing; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ActiGraph accelerometer; Bone fracture healing; Interfragmentary movement; Mechano-regulation; Partial weight-bearing exercise