Design of a novel anterior cruciate ligament prosthesis
Author(s)
Talei Franzesi, Giovanni
DownloadFull printable version (1.147Mb)
Alternative title
Design of a novel ACL prosthesis
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor
Myron Spector and Ioannis V. Yannas.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are extremely common (approximately 100,000 every year in the US) and result in greatly reduced mobility; although several surgical procedures have been devised to address this condition, they are far from being completely satisfactory. The golden standard is currently represented by tendon autografts which, however, result in considerable donor site morbidity. An ideal solution would be to use effective, off-the-shelf permanent prostheses: however, all such devices proposed to date have proved highly disappointing, because of poor long term stability and biocompatibility, and unphysiological mechanical behavior. To address both concerns a novel prosthetic device has been developed, employing crimped NiTi superelastic wire bundles. To achieve near-physiological mechanical behavior, the fiber geometry resembles (on a much larger scale) that of the collagen fibrils that naturally make up the ligament, using as a starting point the Comninou-Yannas crimped-fiber model. (cont.) NiTi (a superelastic alloy of titanium and nickel) has been tested and employed in a variety of biomedical settings and its excellent wear and biocompatibility characteristics make it a superior candidate for this application; the relevant literature has been reviewed and assessed. A detailed design for such prosthesis has been proposed, and a proof-of-principle model of the fiber geometry built and tested. The results obtained to date are encouraging and further testing, with a NiTi prototype should be carried out to validate our proposed design.
Description
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-19).
Date issued
2006Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical EngineeringPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Mechanical Engineering.