Parametric Investigation on Different Bone Densities to avoid Thermal Necrosis during Bone Drilling Process

TL;DR

This study investigates how different bone densities affect thermal necrosis risk during drilling, optimizing drill design parameters to minimize temperature rise and improve surgical outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a parametric analysis using Taguchi method to optimize surgical drill design considering bone density variations.

Findings

Spindle speed has the highest impact on temperature rise.

Optimal drill parameters vary with bone density.

Temperature control is crucial for preventing thermal necrosis.

Abstract

Bone drilling is a universal surgical procedure commonly used for internal fracture fixation, implant placement, or reconstructive surgery in orthopedics and dentistry. The increased temperature during such treatment increases the risk of thermal penetration of the bone, which may delay healing or compromise the fixation's integrity. Thus, avoiding penetration during bone drilling is critical to ensuring the implant's stability, which needs surgical drills with an optimized design. Bovine femur and mandible bones are chosen as the work material since human bones are not available and are the closest animal bone to human bone in terms of properties. In the present study, the Taguchi fractional factorial approach was used to determine the best design of surgical drills by comparing the drilling properties (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio and temperature rise). The control factors (spindle speed, drill bit diameter, drill site depth, and their levels) were arranged in an L9 orthogonal array. Drilling experiments were done using nine experimental drills with three repetitions. The findings of this study indicate that the ideal values of the surgical drill's three parameters combination (S1D1Di2) and their percentage contribution depend on the parameters' drilling levels. However, the result shows that the spindle speed has the highest temperature effect among other parameters in both (femur and mandible) bones.