Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Understanding of mechanical properties of cancellous bone is the important for the study of bone remodeling and bone reconstruction as well as joint prosthesis design. The knowledge about compressive strength and elasticity modulus of spongy bone is not sufficient. Recently, studies on reverse, stretching, cutting, striking and other mechanical properties of cancellous bone have been conducted, and the achievements have been applied to the biomechanical study of femoral head, and thus help the finding of causes, pathology and treatment of femoral head necrosis.
OBJECTIVE: To review related references and summarize the approaches, development, significance and characteristics of the biomechanics of femoral head.
METHDOS: The first author searches the databases of 1990/2009 PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) and Wanfang (http://www.wanfangdata.com.cn) for the articles on biomechanics of the femoral head with the key words “bone biomechanics, mechanical testing of femoral head, biomechanics of hip and femoral head necrosis” in English and Chinese. A total of 107 articles were collected. After eliminating repeated studies and preliminary screening by titles and abstracts, 32 articles were included.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The knowledge of biomechanical properties of femoral head has been developed promptly in recent years, and the research approaches have expended from macroscopic to microscopic. Various approaches of mechanical testing of femoral head have been explored, which lays a foundation for the further study of biomechanical factors of femoral head necrosis. However, to completely know the biomechanical properties of femoral head, explore and verify the influence of the changes of biomechanical environment of femoral head on the occurrence of femoral head necrosis, further innovation of theories and research approaches are required.