How does knee joint and meniscal tissue shape affect joint biomechanics and treatment choice?

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Over 4.5 million people in the UK have knee arthritis. Damage to the meniscus tissue, at the centre of the knee joint, can be both a cause and symptom of knee osteoarthritis. However, successful treatment remains elusive, partly due to variations in knee anatomy and function. This PhD will build on the novel experimental and computational methods developed at the University of Leeds to examine how meniscal repair or replacement surgery can be better matched to patient characteristics. Methods will include: finite element modelling of the joint under physiologically relevant conditions; statistical shape modelling to explore how knee function alters with variations in bone and meniscus shape; and experimental evaluation of meniscal tissue and allografts. Aim and objectives The aim of this PhD is to examine how meniscal repair or replacement surgery can be better matched to patient characteristics. Using a combination of experimental and computational methods, the objectives are: -To characterize the changes in shape and properties of meniscal tissue using imaging and in vitro testing methods -To examine how these changes affect knee kinematics using image-based finite element models of the natural knee -To explore the use of statistical shape and appearance models to represent variations in the population and examine the match required for meniscal surgery to restore individual biomechanical function