A probabilistic approach for modelling bone fracture healing under Ilizarov circular fixator

Abstract

Bone fracture treatments using Ilizarov circular fixator (ICF) involve dealing with uncertainties about a range of critical factors that control the mechanical microenvironment of the fracture site such as ICF configuration, fracture gap size, physiological loading etc. To date, the effects of the uncertainties about these critical factors on the mechanical microenvironment of the fracture site have not been fully understood. The purpose of this study is to tackle this challenge by using computational modelling in conjunction with engineering reliability analysis. Particularly, the effects of uncertainties in fracture gap size (GS), level of weight-bearing (P), ICF wire pretension (T) and wi..