Effect of progressive distal humeral bone deficiencies in humerus-endoprosthesis assembly after tumour excision

• Main Author: Sim, Andre Zheng Kai
• Other Authors: Chou Siaw Meng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177750
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bone tumors in the distal humerus are rare and there is a lack of published literature regarding the outcomes for distal humeral endoprosthesis. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to create a finite element (FE) model to investigate the effect of varying the endoprosthesis length on the bone and implant stresses. It is also to determine whether the bone-implant construct stability can be enhanced by using the optimum implant length. The methodology in this report consists of using computed tomography (CT) scans of the upper limb at varying flexion angles provided by Singapore General Hospital (SGH). The flexion angles include 0 degrees, 30 degrees, 60 degrees and 90 degrees. With 3D Slicer, the cortical and cancellous bones of the humerus, radius and ulna was modelled. 3D models of the implants were also provided by SGH to perform the implantation at all flexion angles according to surgical implantation procedure. The virtual implantation was carried out using SolidWorks. All the components used for the implant were kept constant except the length of the distal humeral component. The lengths vary from 40mm to 55mm. The intact state and the implanted state were subjected to the same forces and boundary conditions to ensure consistent and reliable results by comparing the stresses in ANSYS. In this project, no reliable results were generated due to numerous problems faced during the simulation. However, all methods and results from these methods were explained and documented in this report for further study.