Simulation of bone fractures via geometric techniques: an overview

ABSTRACT

The simulation of realistic fracture cases on geometric models representing bone structures is almost an unexplored field of research. These fractured models have several applications in computer-assisted methods that support specialist in fracture reduction interventions. For instance, the generation of specific fracture patterns can provide uncommon cases for training simulators or can be used to improve machine-learning applications. This paper focuses on the issues to be considered in the generation of fractures on geometric models that represent bone structures. The main recent contributions for fracturing geometric models are examined and the challenges in terms of the application of real bone fracture patterns on geometric models are presented. Moreover, different alternatives for the evaluation of the results obtained by the geometric fracture generation algorithms when applied to bone structures are discussed. Finally, the potential applications of the virtual generation of specific bone fractures are described.

KEYWORDS:

• Bone fracture generation
• geometric approaches

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been partially supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and the European Union (via ERDF funds) through the research project DPI2015-65123-R.