Subject-specific finite element modelling of canine long bones up to fracture

Long bone fracture constitutes a common reason for
medical consultation within veterinary orthopaedic
services. Owing to the specificities of the veterinary
field, post-operative complications after a fracture
osteosynthesis are usually more numerous than those in
human medicine, and therefore, there is a need to better
understand which orthopaedic device(s) should be
preferred for a given fracture. The interest of subjectspecific
finite element (FE) simulations in the understanding
of long bone mechanics has been largely
emphasised (Helgason et al. 2008; Schileo et al. 2008).
However, available studies are often limited by the many
assumptions made throughout the procedure of creating a
validated subject-specific FE model of a long bone,
including geometry acquisition and modelling, assignment
of realistic material properties and accurate validation of
FE results based on ex vivo experiments. Particularly,
fracture prediction has often been limited to the fracture
onset prediction based on arbitrary criteria. Based on these
previous studies, the objective of the present contribution
is to propose and compare different subject-specific FE
models of long bones that could accurately predict long
bone response and failure.