Esther Sánchez Garza, M.Sc.
About me
I’m from Mexico, specifically from Monterrey, where I studied the bachelor in Biomedical Engineering. During my bachelor I was always interested in the biomechanics area, but it was until a few years later that I decided to study a master degree abroad. That’s how I came to the Netherlands. I did the master in Biomedical Engineering with the specialization of Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. I did my internship and my master project in the Orthopaedic Biomechanics group of the university, where I worked with finite element models of the cartilage and bone. When I finished, I started working at the Orthopaedic Research Lab as a researcher for one year in knee implants. After this, in January 2017, I began a PhD in uncemented total knee replacements under supervision of Nico Verdonschot and Dennis Janssen.
My research
The total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most common and successful surgical procedure for a diseased knee joint, which offers pain relief and improvement of knee function, and provides a better quality of life for patients. During surgery, the damaged bone and cartilage are removed and the different components of the TKA are implanted. The fixation of the implant components to the bone could be done by using bone cement (cemented implant) or with a direct attachment of the implant to the bone (cementless implant). ln this study, we are going to focus in the cementless TKA implant, which offers the potential advantage of a biological bond at the bone-implant interface.
This PhD project aims to study the relationship that bone characteristics (bone mineral density, bone damage, bone mechanical behaviour) and implant characteristics (frictional coefficient, press-fit interface, loading conditions, implant design) can have on the stability of a cementless TKA implant. This can be done by measuring the micromotions at the bone-implant interface during experimental tests on cadaver bones and computer simulations.