Recently, a Total Ankle Arthroplasty (TAA) has been commonly used when no other options are available for patients with severe arthritis at the ankle joint. But bone resorption, aseptic loosening, instability, malalignment and fractures are generally known as the main reasons of TAA failures. Those TAA which have been designed up until now are generally based on the morphological and kinesiological characteristics of the ankle joint. They are adjusted by the ankle joint size of Westerners, although both the morphological and mechanical (strength) characteristics of the ankle joints of Asian are important in the development of a TAA suitable to Asians. Little information about the morphological and mechanical characteristics of the ankle joint of Asians is available for the development of a TAA suitable to Asians. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to analyze the morphological and mechanical characteristics of the ankle joints of Asians. Computed tomography data obtained from 50 patients (mean age: 64.14 ± 9.34 years) were analyzed.

Ceramic femoral heads are now widely used in Total Hip Replacement (THR). Due to their high biocompatibility and low ductility, ceramic femoral heads are considered to be suitable for young and active patients. However, as in testing the mechanical stability of the femoral head, the conventional proof test (standard ISO 7206-10) has its limit of showing axisymmetric stress distribution on the contact surface, while non-uniformed stress distribution is expected after THR. Since non-uniformed stress distribution can result in the increased probability of ceramic femoral head fracture, it is considerable to evaluate the stress distribution in vivo-like conditions. Therefore, this study simulated the ceramic femoral heads under in vivo-like conditions using finite element method. The maximum stress decreased when increasing the size of the femoral head and stress distribution was concentrated on superior contact surface of the taper region.