A porous polymeric-hydroxyapatite scaffold used for femur fractures treatment: fabrication, analysis, and simulation

One of the most common fractures in the skeleton happens in the femur. One of the important reasons for this fracture is because it is the longest bone in the body and osteoporosis affect this part a lot. The geometric complexity and anisotropy properties of this bone have received a lot of attention in the orthopedic field.

In this research, a femur designed using 3D printing machine using the middle part of the hip made of polylactic acid-hydroxyapatite (PLA-HA) nanocomposite containing 0, 5, 10, 15, and 25 wt% of ceramic nanoparticle. Three different types of loadings, including centralized loading, full-scale, and partially loaded, were applied to the designed femur bone. The finite element analysis was used to analyze biomechanical components.

The results of the analysis showed that it is possible to use the porous scaffold model for replacement in the femur having proper strength and mechanical stability. Stress-strain analysis on femoral implant with biometric HA and PLA after modeling was performed using the finite element method under static conditions in Abaqus software.

Three scaffold structures, i.e., mono-, hybrid, and zonal structures, that can be fabricated using current bioprinting techniques are also discussed with respect to scaffold design.