INA-Follow up
Artificial intelligence-driven design techniques have opened new horizons for developing more robust hip replacements, as well as improving bone fracture healing processes.
To achieve this goal, a medical team at Leiden University in the Netherlands employed artificial intelligence trained to predict how different materials interact. Scientists were able to input the specific properties they were seeking, and the system produced a design known as a "supermaterial"—materials that can be engineered to acquire unusual properties by modifying their microstructure.
"The search for a new material with exceptional properties has been ongoing for years," says Amir Zadpoor, professor of orthopedic surgery at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. "We needed a material that thickens when stretched while maintaining a strength comparable to bone."
"This was an extremely difficult requirement, especially considering what happens when you stretch a rubber band at both ends. The more you stretch it, the thinner it becomes. However, Zadpour and his team needed a material that did the exact opposite; it had to defy the laws of physics," Zadpoor added.
The problem they faced was in hip replacement surgery. Hip replacement is one of the most common orthopedic surgeries worldwide. The problem is that people with artificial joints take about two million steps a year, which exposes these joints to forces that gradually wear them down after a decade or more of use. These artificial joints often then need to be replaced," he confirmed.
"Hope has increased in addressing this problem by using artificial intelligence through the use of two different materials that work in opposite ways when subjected to stretching, on both sides of the bone implant base. One increases in thickness when compressed, and the other increases in thickness when stretched. This would contribute to absorbing the pressure on the femur when the joint is under stress and ensure that the bone implant remains firmly fixed in alignment with the bones themselves,” Zadpoor stated.
