Conclusions and Future Work

Abstract

In this manuscript, we have provided an overview of the overall biomechanical and clinical studies on healthy and pathological knee joints. The various methods used by different researchers for modeling this joint were evoked, as well as the material properties assigned for each component of the knee joint. Ultimately, the different experimental and FEA studies that investigate the mechanical behavior of the knee joint, as well as the cause, treatment and prevention of knee OA, were well analyzed in order to discuss its major effect on the clinical area. This review discussed various FEA studies available in literature that enable a biomechanical analysis of knee behavior after a specific treatment (ligament rupture, meniscectomy, HTO, etc.), and provided clinically relevant information regarding the force, stress and displacement changes that occur in a pathological knee. Ultimately, the work presented here is a new concept focused on the FEA method that takes a step towards a novel diagnostic tool for the assessment of possible failure sites in the human knee, assessing the outcome of treatments or surgical procedures, such as the HTO, and that could thus be used in clinical decision-making.