[Mechanical properties of therapeutic sand upon femur and its finite element analysis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the mechanical properties of therapeutic sand for femur used in the Uygur medicine. METHODS: Rabbits were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group. Rabbits of both groups had arthritis. No treatment was carried out for the control group. Only sand therapy was offered for the treatment group. After sand therapy was completed, rabbits specimen were removed and grouped. The NJ-100B device was employed to measure the femur tensile and compressive strength and the analysis of finite element performed upon the experimental data. RESULTS: At different sand temperatures below 55 degrees C, there was no significant difference in maximal stress and elastic modulus of tensile/compressive/bending of each femur sample. CONCLUSION: Under different temperatures, the in vitro heating has no obvious effect upon the bio-mechanical performance of bone tissues. The static tensile strength of ex vivo femur shows no obvious decline. And the compressive strengthen improves somewhat over the normal group.