Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) re-constructive surgeries are often successful at improving joint stability, but patients have a highly elevated risk for developing early onset osteoarthritis (OA). It is not well understood why OA develops in these patients, or how one can best plan a treatment strategy to mitigate the risk for OA.
A new multiscale computational construct is being formulated to examine the inherent coupling that exists between musculoskeletal dynamics and soft tissue mechanics, which are decoupled in existing computational models, during gait. This construct is used to gain insights into the key surgical factors that can affect cartilage contact stresses after ACL reconstruction, which are believed to predicate osteoarthritis changes to the joint.
The aims of this research are to investigate the coupled influence of surgical factors and muscle forces on in vivo knee mechanics as measured using dynamic MRI and to investigate the multiscale biomechanical behavior of reconstructed knees during human locomotion as well. The results of these studies are important for informing clinical approaches that can best mitigate the risk of OA following ligament injury and surgical repair.