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Updated: Jul 8, 2025
An Improved Mechanical Testing Method to Assess Bone-implant Anchorage
Published on: February 10, 2014
An additively manufactured titanium tilting suture anchor: a biomechanical assessment on human and ovine bone
Ali Abedi1, Farzad Pourghazi2,3, Maysa Eslami2,3
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Introduction:
A novel titanium tilting suture anchor was designed and fabricated using additive manufacturing. The anchor enjoyed a nonsymmetrical structure to facilitate its insertion procedure through a weight-induced tilt, a saw-teeth penetrating edge to provide a strong initial fixation into cancellous bones of various densities, and an appropriate surface texture to enhance the longterm fixation strength through bone ingrowth.
Methods:
Biomechanical tests were performed on 10 ovine and 10 human cadaveric humeri to examine the insertion procedure and assess the initial fixation strength of the anchor, in comparison with a standard screw-type anchor as control.
Results:
This study indicated a simple yet reliable insertion procedure for the tilting anchor. All anchors survived after 400 cycles of cyclic loadings and failed in the load-to-failure step. There were no significant differences between the displacements and fixation stiffnesses of the anchors in either group. The ultimate failure load was significantly smaller (p<0.05) for tilting anchors in ovine group (273.7 ± 129.72 N vs. 375.6 ± 106.36 N), but not different in human group (311.8 ± 82.55 N vs. 281.9 ± 88.35). Also, a larger number of tilting anchors were pulled out in ovine group (6 vs. 3) but a smaller number in human group (4 vs. 6).
Conclusion:
It was concluded that the biomechanical performance of the designed tilting anchor is comparable with that of the standard screw-type anchors.
