Considerable evidence indicates that damage, to or removal of, the menisci can have detrimental effects upon primary knee joint function and cause degeneration by predisposing the knee to the effects of osteoarticular disease. To understand fully how the menisci function, their intrinsic material properties and essential features of their behavioural response to loading conditions and how these properties vary throughout the tissue must be precisely defined. This provides the ability to understand the normal function of the knee meniscus, quantify pathologies, detect injurious mechanisms and evaluate the effects of injury and repair. Load-deformation studies, obtained through precisely prepared material samples and standardised loading conditions were used to obtain the relationship between stress and strain of the meniscus when subject to uniaxial compressive, tensile and shear loading in different orthogonal planes and regions. The fundamental understanding of the relationships between the structural organisation and biomechanical properties of fresh, human meniscal tissue has been reported. Failure mechanisms within the highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous material are presented. Material coefficients and mathematical equations modelling stress-strain response are defined and the effects of pathology, location and age effects have been determined. This primary information provides us with a better understanding of the functional behaviour of the meniscus under physiological loading conditions and an insight into possible failure mechanisms. The precise materials and mechanical property data presented will enable accurate computer simulations to be constructed and provide a reference by which future developments in the fields of meniscal repair and tissue engineering can be realistically assessed for performance <i>in vivo.</i>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:657982 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Moran, Robert Stephen |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/12682 |
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