Influence of Osteoporosis on the Strain Distribution in the Human Tibia

Introduction Aging and osteoporosis lead to a decrease in bone density and to a reduced thickness of the cortical shell (Ritzel et al., 1997). Treatment of fractures in osteoporotic bone therefore require an adequate understanding of the internal loading conditions of the bone due to these morphological variations. Since bone formation is driven by mechanical stimulation, changes due to osteoporosis might also be influenced by the loading of the bone. As a consequence it is indispensable to take into account the physiological load scenario when analyzing the effects of morphological changes. To our knowledge, there is no study where both, structural changes and validated physiological loads have been considered to analyze the loading of a whole bone. The goal of this study was to determine the influence of changes in bone density and cortical geometry on the resulting strains in the tibia under physiological loads.