Mechanobiological investigation of bone fracture healing under Ilizarov circular fixators

Abstract

Ilizarov circular fixator (ICF) is an external bone fixation device used by orthopaedic surgeons in treating variety of bone defects. Despite the fact that ICFs are being used for over seven decades, the interplay between ICF mechanics and biology of fracture healing remains poorly understood. The roles of ICF configurations on processes within the fracture site during fracture healing such as cell differentiations, solute (e.g. cell, growth factors etc.) transport and angiogenesis have not been explained well yet. Furthermore, how the interplay between ICF and other mechanical factors such as fracture geometry and loading affect these processes remains unclear. This knowledge gap in the mec..