Abstract:

BACKGROUND: With the development of bone tissue engineering in clinical orthopedics, stability of internal fixation has been the focus of clinical research, then what are the means to a better grasp of the biomechanical changes after implantation?
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the biomechanical evaluation of the application-level imaging in orthopedic implants.
METHODS: The CNKI database and PubMed database (1999-01/2012-06) were used to search the related articles about radiographic evaluation of orthopedic implants. The key words of “orthopedics, implantation, steel plate, screw, X-ray, CT, MRI” in English and Chinese were put in the title and abstract for searching the articles. The articles that related to the radiographic evaluation of orthopedic implants were selected, and for the articles in the same field, those published recently or in the authorized journals were preferred. A total of 172 articles were obtained after the initial survey, and finally 25 articles were included for review according to the inclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: X-ray, CT and MRI in the evaluation after implantation of internal fixation play an important role, through the imaging pathway can grasp the location of the placement of the implants, angle, and the integration of implant materials with the host, as well as their corrosion, and it can evaluate the biomechanical stability of implants and the biocompatibility of implanted host. X-ray plain film shows the details of bone structure best, MRI is mainly used for detecting the soft tissue and cartilage, and CT can be used for representing the bone structure and detecting the soft tissue and cartilage both. X-ray plain film, CT and MRI have their advantages. Radiation and orthopedic doctors should understand the characteristics, pros and cons of various inspections, and combined with the circumstances of each patient to select the appropriate inspection methods which is more conducive to grasp the post-implantation efficacy.