A novel method to accurately recreate in vivo loads and kinematics in computational models of the knee

Abstract

Despite availability of in vivo knee loads and kinematics data, conventional load- and displacement-controlled configurations still can’t accurately predict tibiofemoral loads from kinematics or vice versa. We propose a combined load- and displacement-control method for joint-level simulations of the knee to reliably reproduce in vivo contact mechanics. Prediction errors of the new approach were compared to those of conventional purely load- or displacement-controlled models using in vivo implant loads and kinematics for multiple subjects and activities (CAMS-Knee dataset). Our method reproduced both loads and kinematics more closely than conventional models and thus demonstrates clear advantages for investigating tibiofemoral contact or wear.

Keywords:

• Knee joint
• simulation
• boundary conditions
• in vivo
• contact mechanics

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Zimmer Biomet for providing access to the Innex implant CAD files.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The CAMS-Knee datasets analyzed in this study are available upon request at https://cams-knee.orthoload.com for research purposes.

Additional information

Funding

PK received funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (TR 1657/1-1). The Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics received partial funding from the RMS Foundation (E21_0007).