Mecmesin force tester to study shoulder prosthesis

An orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Brighton's medical school has chosen a Mecmesin Multitest 10-x force testing system to conduct research on a prosthesis for shoulder reconstruction.

Shoulder prostheses are used to replace shoulders fractured in falls among the elderly and occasionally following high-energy motor vehicle collisions or by direct violent trauma.

They can also be applied to arthritic patients.

The prostheses need to be tested to ensure that they attach correctly to the surrounding bones and tendons, reliably replicating the anatomical structure of a shoulder and a patient's mobility and movement over time.

During the test, the prosthesis is attached to a cadaver and the Multitest 10-x is used to pull on the prosthesis repair site at a constant rate of tension, in the line of pull of normal muscles.

The Multitest 10-x cyclic testing feature is particularly useful for this application, with a range of tensile tests cycling between different loads for 999 times.

The results from these cyclic tests show which shoulder replacement prosthesis is the strongest.

Mecmesin's Emperor Lite data acquisition software is then used to store and manage the test data.

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