Mechanical aspects of a single-bundle tibial interference screw fixation in a tendon graft ACL resconstruction

Numerical methods applicable to the tibia bone and soft tissue biomechanics of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed knee are presented in this paper. The aim is to achieve a better understanding of the mechanics of an ACL reconstructed knee. The paper describes the methodology applied in the development of an anatomically detailed three-dimensional ACL reconstructed knee model for finite element analysis from medical image data obtained from a computed tomography scan. Density segmentation techniques are used to geometrically define the knee bone structure and the encapsulated soft tissues configuration. Linear and nonlinear elastic constitutive material models are implemented to mechanically characterize the behavior of the biological materials. Preliminary numerical results for the model qualitative evaluation are presented.