Editors: | F. Kongoli, M. Calin, J.M. Dubois, K. Zuzek-Rozman |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 156 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-02-5 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
Many therapeutic fields use implantable medical devices. This usually involves replacing a whole organ or a defective part of an organ by a biocompatible substitute. Knee prostheses, hip prostheses, dental prostheses and breast prostheses are among the best-known implantable medical devices. These biomedical materials are intended to be in long-term contact with biological materials. Cells contained in these biological materials detect and react to their environment. This mechano-transduction process greatly influences the physiological processes involved in development, health and disease. The mechanical function of cells impacts, among other things, the processes of healing, differentiation of stem cells, and cancer metastases [1]-[4]. The impact of the contact forces developed between the implant and the biological tissue on changes in the behavior of the tissue has not yet received much attention from the scientific community. This is mainly because the mechanical constitutive equation of biological tissues is not available due to their complex microstructure. We believe that biological tissues can be considered as micromorphic media. It is actually the most achieved phenomenological top-down approach. The effectiveness of this modelling is investigated by considering the examples of an implant/bone system and a stent/artery system. The presented study is completely numerical and supported by clinical observations.