Investigation of the Average Shape and Principal Variations of the Human Talus Bone Using Statistic Shape Model

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Due to the complexity of articular interconnections and tenuous blood supply to the talus, talus fractures are often associated with complications (e.g., avascular necrosis). Currently, surgically fusing the talus to adjacent bones is widely used as treatment to talus fractures, but this procedure can greatly reduce mobility in the ankle and hindfoot. Alternatively, customized talus implants have shown an overall satisfactory patient feedback but with the limitation of high expenses and time-consuming manufacturing process. In order to circumvent these disadvantages, universal talus implants have been proposed as a potential solution. In our study, we aimed to develop a methodology using Statistical Shape Model (SSM) to simulate the talus, and then evaluate the feasibility of the model to obtain the mean shape needed for universal implant design. In order to achieve this, we registered 98 tali (41 females and 57 males) and used the registered dataset to train our SSM. We used the mean shape derived from the SSM as the basis for our talus implant template, and compared our template with that of previous works. We found that our SSM mean shape talus implant was geometrically similar to implants from other works, which used a different method for the mean shape. This suggests the feasibility of SSM as a method of finding mean shape information for the development of universal implants. A second aim of our study was to investigate if one scalable talus implant can accommodate all patients. In our study, we focused on addressing this from a geometric perspective as there are multiple factors impacting this (e.g., articular surface contact characteristics, implant material properties). Our initial findings are that the first two principal components should be afforded consideration for the geometrical accuracy of talus implant design. Additional factors would need to be further evaluated for their role in informing universal talus implant design.

Original languageBritish English
Article number656
JournalFrontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Volume8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jul 2020

Keywords

  • geometric analysis
  • groupwise registration
  • principal component analysis
  • statistical shape model
  • talus implant design

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Investigation of the Average Shape and Principal Variations of the Human Talus Bone Using Statistic Shape Model'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this