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Leveraging cutting-edge technology, we have made remarkable strides in the realm of orthopedic care, specifically in fracture management. Our innovative approach now allows us to meticulously correlate patient mobilization with specific load parameters, enabling us to scrutinize the influence of everyday forces on individual fracture healing. For the first time in medical history, we have the capability to evaluate the biomechanics of fracture healing on a personalized patient level. This unprecedented breakthrough is integral to devising targeted mechanical interventions tailored to each patient's unique needs. As we continue to harness this technology, we aim to profoundly transform the care path for elderly patients with fractures. Our mission is to improve outcomes, enhance recovery, and ultimately, to redefine the future of fracture care for our aging population.
Personalized computer modeling of a digital twin
Computed-Tomography can serve as a source of bone geometry, but is not always available
Out technology enables us to create 3D models of the bone also based on standard, routine X-rays
A digital twin or virtual model of the patient bone is created that can be processed in a computer model.
Generating a 3D geometry of the bone from clinical imaging data is only the first step to create a simulation computer model that can assess internal processes that would otherwise be inaccessible.
Further steps of modelling include the identification of material properties, boundary conditions such as muscle and joint loads as well as placing fixation implants and defining their interactions with the bone.
Depending on complexity, such computational models can require intensive resources as many equations need to be solved and the effort rises exponentially with the dimensionality. Our approach adds a dedicated idealization steps that dramatically reduces the dimensionality of the problem, making it much faster to solve the calculations, but at the same time, we achieve a comparable accuracy as the complex models.
Fitting fracture fixation
With our methods, we can fit virtual models of fixation implants to the virtual model of a bone based on the real patient X-ray image. This allows for creating a realistic model of a specific patient-case, putting the implant where the surgeon put it - in 3D.
This way, we get closer to the real patient case and their specific local mechanical environment, so that we can assess for the first time, based on clinical routine data, how the healing tissue is stimulated. This lets us tune the activities, because we also know the limits of ideal stimulation from clinical assessments of fast and slow healers, on which we can run our simulations a posteriori to train our evaluation model.
Loading of computational bone models
When bone or regenerative tissue is loaded, the mechanical stimulation of deformation guides the tissue adaptation. This means the tissue rebuilds accord to the internal forces that act on it. This means, we can derive ideal loading conditions for a given set of patient characteristics (anatomy, bone quality), fracture pattern (gap size, stability), and treatment (fracture fixation). Mechano-therapy becomes feasible, which means we can guide ideal mobilization by guiding ideal tissue stimulation on a personalized level.
Fracture fixation over a defect
Intact bone
Resultant local stimulation for fracture healing
Resultant local stimulation for normal bone adaptation
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