In vivo and in silico Analyses in Humans: Cartilage Loading of Patients’ Individual Knees – the Role of Soft Tissue Structures

While a relationship between knee joint laxity and osteoarthritis is often assumed, the exact mechanism is not yet fully understood. It is not clear how stabilization by either the cross ligaments or muscle forces affect the local cartilage stress and strain. We develop a comprehensive analysis tool for individual patients. On one hand, we couple a dynamic multibody model to a quasistatic contact solver for the cartilage and validate it against in vivo measurement data from patient groups at Charite. On the other hand, we develop visualization and statistical analysis tools that allow to understand the impact of anatomical variation and cross ligament loss on the mechanical loading of cartilage and correlate this to osteoarthritis progression.