Abstract

Newborns diagnosed with hip dysplasia face severe consequences when treatments fail. The Pavlik harness presents the most common worldwide treatment for correcting this medical hip abnormality in newborns, but becomes increasingly ineffective as subluxation increases. A dynamic finite element analysis on the hip joint would yield results that could provide insight to physicians as to how the Pavlik harness could be optimized to increase its success rate and develop patient-specific treatment plans. The study completes the first step in such an analysis by generating a three-dimensional model of an infant hip joint directly derived from computed tomography imaging in order to accurately represent the anatomical locations of muscle origins and insertions points as well as the unique cartilaginous characteristics of a neonate hip and femur. Such models will further enhance findings on the biomechanics of hip dysplasia that resulted from a preliminary study using computer-aided design to recreate the hip joint. In addition to the models, the orientation of the psoas tendon in a dysplastic hip through full range abduction and flexion was analyzed using a cadaveric dissection. It was determined that the psoas tendon was not an obstruction to reduction when the hip was in flexion so long as the tendon was not adherent to the hip capsule, and therefore can be disregarded in a finite element analysis or dynamic simulation that introduces flexion. The work of this thesis will lay the foundation for complex finite element analyses regarding the biomechanics of hip dysplasia in neonates as well as other hip abnormalities relevant to early child development.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2013

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Kassab, Alain

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Degree Program

Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science;Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004423

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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