On the Influence of Cancellous Bone Structure upon the Electric Field Distribution of Electrostimulative Implants

U. Zimmermann[1], R.Bader[2], U. van Rienen[1]
[1]Institute of General Electrical Engineering, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
[2]Department of Orthopaedics, University Medicine Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Published in 2014

Since the 1980s, the accelerating effect of electromagnetic fields on bone regeneration is used to treat complicated fractures and bone diseases. At the University of Rostock, an electrostimulative hip revision system is developed, basing on the method of Kraus-Lechner. This method requires an electric fields between 5 and 70 V/m. The bone used for the simulations consisted of two homogenous domains of cancellous bone and cortical bone. However especially cancellous bone is a tissue with a spongy structure, which consists of several materials. In the present work, the influence of the microstructure of the cancellous bone is investigated. Different methods to correlate the electric conductivity with the bone density, as measured with a micro CT, are analyzed.