Title: An investigation on thermal necrosis during bone drilling

Authors: Gurmeet Singh; Aman Gahi; Vivek Jain; Dheeraj Gupta

Addresses: Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, 147004, India ' Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, 147004, India ' Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, 147004, India ' Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, 147004, India

Abstract: Drilling through bone is an old and effective method to get rapid cure from bone injury. During orthopaedic surgery we must need to fix the bones at their appropriate position so that it can rehabilitate at its natural position. Bone needs to be fixed with implants and screws for this overall curing process and drilling through bone is a necessary action for fulfilling the objective. For successive drilling through the bones a mechanical drilling system is used. Drilling mechanism for bone drilling is same as the mechanical drilling so heat is produced during bone drilling and affected the surroundings. The main challenge for bone drilling is to maintain the temperature below the threshold limit, which is 47°C in case of human bone. Exploitation of bone to above 47°C can cause osteonecrosis. Temperature produced during drilling depends upon the parameters selected for the drilling. So to maintain low temperature these parameters needs to be studied and needs to be controlled during drilling. This study mainly focuses on the effect of parameters on rise in temperature during bone drilling.

Keywords: bone drilling; thermal necrosis; orthopaedic surgery; thermocouple; temperature threshold; osteonecrosis; drilling parameters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2016.077708

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2016 Vol.18 No.4, pp.341 - 349

Received: 20 Mar 2015
Accepted: 25 Sep 2015
Published online: 13 Jul 2016 *

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