EVALUATION OF CONTACT PRESSURE AT ARTICULAR SURFACE OF KNEE IMPLANT IN NEUTRAL, VARUS AND VALGUS ALIGNMENT

IntroductionKnee joint should be aligned for reconstruction of the function in Total Knee Replacement(TKR). Although a surgeon try to correct the alignment of a knee joint, sometimes varus/valgus alignment has been tried in order to reconstruct function of knee joint. As a result, the varus or valgus alignment affects to ligaments and soft tissue, and the contact condition is changed between femoral component and tibial insert. One of important factor, wear characteristics of an implant can be changed due to the contact condition. In this study, we performed static contact tests from extension to flexion in varus and valgus to define the effect to contact condition when the alignment is varus or valgus.MethodsLOSPA TKR femoral component #6 and Tibial insert #5 manufactured by Corentec Co., Ltd. were used as test specimens. The tests have performed with adapting ASTM F2777–10 ‘Standard Test Method for Evaluating Knee Bearing (Tibial Insert) Endurance and Deformation under High Flexion’. The test set like a...