Mechanical responses of the rabbit patello-femoral joint to blunt impact.

Various studies suggest impact trauma may initially soften cartilage, damage subchondral bone, or a combination thereof. The initial damages are commonly thought due to excessive contact pressure generated on cartilage and the underlying bone. The objective of this research was to develop a small animal model for studying post-traumatic OA and to correlate contact pressure with tissue damage. Blunt insult was graded by dropping a rigid mass onto the hyperflexed hind limb of rabbits. Contact pressure in the patello-femoral joint was measured with pressure sensitive film. One, 3, 6, and 14 days later the animals were euthanized. Damage to cartilage and the underlying bone was assessed visually and in microscopic sections. Indentation experiments were performed on the patellar cartilage with a rigid, flat probe. Contact pressures were nonuniform over the articular surfaces and a high frequency of surface fissures were generated on the lateral facet in severe insults. The appearance of surface fissures correlated better with the magnitude of contact pressure gradients in the damage zone than the magnitude of contact pressures on the facet, per se. Blunt trauma causing surface fissures resulted in a measurable degree of softening in the patellar cartilage, especially close to the defects. Surgical intervention of the joint to insert pressure sensitive film, however, also resulted in significant softening of the cartilage.