Biomechanics of Diarthrodial Joints

Historical folklore indicates that Asklepios (circa 900 BC), the fir~t western doctor of ancient Greece, treated many patients with rheumatic diseases of 1 joints ,2. Later, Hippocrates (circa 400 BC), who claimed to have learned from Asklepios, used the term arthritis in reference to joint diseases: "When the disease of arthritis strikes, acute inflammation and pain attacks the joints of the body ... ". Indeed, arthritic joint disease dates much farther back into antiquity than Asklepios. Many modern anthropologists have noted degenerative joint disease in the fossils of Neanderthal man (archanthropus europeus petraloniensis) and even in those of dinosaurs. More recent scientific studies on joints date back to the work of the great English anatomist Hunter who wrote "The Structure and Diseases of Articular Cartilage" in the Philosophical Transactions of London in 1743. The notion that osteoarthritis results from the wearing away of cartilage was copiously documented by the histological observations of the German physician Ecker in 1843. This idea was further supported by Pommer (1927) who felt that mechanical stresses played important roles in the initiation and propagation of cartilage lesions leading to osteoarthritis. This same conclusion was reached by the assembled distinguished experts at a National Institutes of Health Workshop 3 held in 1986 .

Klappentext

These books make up a two-volume set which discusses the biomechanics of diarthrodial joints in a sophisticated and comprehensive manner. The books provide information on the latest thinking experimental analyses and theory regarding the topic. The striking advances in the past 20 years that have occurred through specialized and interdisciplinary studies on connective tissues from the macroscopic to the molecular level are approached in the books by the world's foremost leading experts in biomechanics. The selection of topics covered in this book on diarthrodial joints are currently considered to be the most important areas of biomechanical research today.

Inhalt
I Ligaments, Tendons, and Menisc.- 1. Structure and Function of Normal and Healing Tendons and Ligaments.- 2. The Biology of Tendons and Ligaments.- 3. Biomechanics and Morphology of the Medial Collateral and Anterior Cruciate Ligaments.- 4. Biomechanics of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament and its Replacements.- 5. New Insights Into Load Bearing Functions of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament.- 6. Structure and Biology of the Knee Meniscus.- 7. Structure and Function of the Meniscus: Basic and Clinical Implications.- II Cartilage Biomechanics.- 8. Biphasic and Quasilinear Viscoelastic Theories for Hydrated Soft Tissues.- 9. Physicochemical and Bioelectrical Determinants of Cartilage Material Properties.- 10. A Triphasic Theory for the Swelling Properties of Hydrated Charged Soft Biological Tissues.- 11. Viscometric Properties of Proteoglycan Solutions at Physiological Concentrations.- 12. Osmotic and Hydraulic Flows in Proteoglycan Solutions.- 13. Water Content and Solute Diffusion Properties in Articular Cartilage.- 14. Biomechanical Properties of Healing Cartilage.- 15. Alternate Hybrid, Mixed, and Penalty Finite Element Formulations for the Biphasic Model of Soft Hydrated Tissues.- 16. Characteristics of Joint Loading as it Applies to Osteoarthrosis.