Chicken proximal interphalangeal joint as an animal model for human finger joint prosthesis evaluation.

A group of chickens was employed as animal model for evaluation of osteointegration, stability and to a lesser extent, functional recovery potential of a newly designed human finger joint prosthesis under long term implantation. Mechanical and Histological test was conducted. Results in our study suggest that while chicken interphalangeal joint could be a potential model for evaluating surgical operation and osteointegration of human finger joint prosthesis, the effectiveness of evaluation in certain areas are far from ideal especially in functional and mechanical evaluation of the prosthesis. Nevertheless, it is suggested that chicken interphalangeal joint can still be a potential model for evaluating new human finger joint prosthesis if enough anchoring and stabilization could be provided because of the similarity in anatomical structure.