[Mechanical stress on the osseous tibial plateau in complement joint surface replacement--a finite element analysis]

For an unconstrained bicondylar sledge knee prosthesis the mechanical load of the bony support is crucial. For a design of a tibial component of such a prosthesis with improved anatomical features allowing a complete cortical support of the rim of the prosthesis, a finite element study was performed. Stress reactions of the bone for different implantation modes were calculated. Irrespective of the bony support of the prosthesis, tensile stresses are always transferred at the interface prosthesis/bone into the bone. For a complete cortical support of the rim of prosthesis, the areas of tensile stress in the bone are closely related to areas of high compression stress. If there is cortical support of the prosthesis only on the medial side due to an undersized prosthesis, this is only of minor influence on the stress pattern in the bone. However, if there is cortical support of the prosthesis only on the lateral side, there are large areas of tensile stresses in the lateral compartment of the tibial plateau. However, tensile stress transfer in the tibial plateau must be regarded as unphysiologic and therefore unfavourable. Therefore, if intraoperatively complete cortical support of the prosthesis cannot be achieved a more medial cortical support of such a prosthesis should be preferred to a lateral cortical support.