| Suture anchors are commonly used by orthopaedic surgeons to repair ligament tears. This thesis studies a new type of suture anchor, called an adhesive suture anchor. The anchor is constructed by drilling a hole in bone, placing two suture leads into the hole, and potting the suture in place with an adhesive matrix.; A static pull test was conducted on thirteen different adhesive anchor geometries (five samples in each test) using Palacos Bone Cement (Polymethylmethacrylate) as the adhesive matrix. The second strongest anchor had a tapered hole and held 207 N (46.5 lbf).; Two finite element models were created to analyze the difference between the straight hole and the tapered hole anchors.; Cyclic fatigue testing was also completed on the strongest anchor configuration to determine fatigue strength and dynamic creep behavior. Twenty samples were cycled at 10 Hz over four different maximum loads (five samples each): 184 N (41.4 lbf), 161 N (36.2 lbf), 149.5 N (33.6 lbf), and 138 N (31.0 N). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
