Arturo Cruz Avilés

La mecánica del hueso. Una revisión de los modelos de remodelación óseo

The bone as biological structure is continually adapting to changes in their physical environment, it has been widely accepted that bone respond to mechanical stimulation, tissue is resorbed in regions exposed to low mechanical stimulus, whereas new bone is deposited where the stimulus is high. This process of adaptation is thought to enable bone to perform its mechanical functions with a minimum of mass. From this idea, many theoretical models for bone remodeling use this concept as part of the strategy to simulate bone structural adaptation. What implies the existence of an equilibrium state where the bone structure is adapted to the environment. That is the origin to develop of computational models were, on one hand, the assumption of isotropy of the trabecular structure is made. The results show the similarities in density distribution with in vivo bone, as well as a convergent solution cannot be obtained. To another part, models have been developed to consider the anisotropic nature of the trabecular bone in the continuum level making use of optimization principles; however, despite of some mechanical aspects reflected by these idealized microstructures, they just represent a mathematical abstraction of the trabecular architecture. The aim of this work is to show the models of bone adaptation that employ a mathematical approach to characterize the mechanical properties of the bone structure. Keyworks: Bone, stimuli, bone remodeling, strain energy density