A Biomechanical Monitor For Bone Fracture Healing

Bone fracture nonunion may occur after surgical treatment with firm infixation. X-ray imaging cannot record the healing process continuously and quantitatively. In this study, a strain sensor with a continuous monitor system was designed for the fractured bone with a plate. A simulation for bone healing courses was calculated to determine the circuit design accuracy. Based on the simulation result, a strain monitor system was proposed. This sensor system has a sensitivity of 1.675µV/N and a resolution of 3µϵ/MP a in the test. A bench test was done to show a consistency of 0.85 with the simulation result. Besides, the system was applied to the rabbits with fracture bone to record motion status and monitor bone healing. The results show that the device is reliable to reflect real strain in bone-plate-attached fractured bone models. which proved the feasibility of the proposed strain sensor system to monitor the bone healing process and motion while exercising in real-time.