INVESTIGATION AND MODELING OF BONE FRACTURE HEALING

Abstract

Abstract An initial stage of bone fracture healing, a clot formation is discussed in this paper. This is an important step in a healing process and it determines future formation of a callus and resulting tissue formation and remodeling. Preliminary results of an animal experiment and theoretical considerations are presented. A biomechanical model of considered phenomenon is proposed and a simple numerical example is discussed. In this example square domain of a porous tissue surrounding broken bone is considered. In this domain micro-cracks are generated. Their distribution changes linearly with a distance from a surface contacting with a bone. The open pores are filled with a physiological liquid. One of the edges of the considered domain is in contact with the fractured bone. It is assumed that blood leeks from the fracture in bone, mixes with the fluids in the pores and propagates into the porous tissue. After a certain time period blood solidification starts what results in a clot formation. It is assumed that the shape of the clot is determined by an assumed level of tissue saturation with blood component at the moment when solidification starts. It follows from this investigations that after minor improvements of the theoretical description and experimental determination of the parameters necessary to perform calculations this model can be used in future to predict conditions necessary for correct and fast bone fracture healing