Numerical strength simulation of mandibular osteosynthesis by means of autogenous bone graft

Autogenous bone grafts in maxillofacial surgery becomes one of the methods which are most often applied in the treatment of pathogenic cancer changes in mandibular bones. The parts of iliac bones are mainly applied as the transplanting material. The method, unfortunately, produces relatively high percentage of unsuccessful operational cases. It results in the resorption of the transplanting bone material, bone necrosis or inflammatory states. Those phenomena predominate mostly in the areas of contact of two kinds of bone material: iliac bone graft and mandibular hard tissues. The aim of the paper was to examine whether or in which way the change of the bone trabecular architecture and the way of occlusal loadings could influence the local resorption of bone material. Numerical simulations and calculations as well as the finite element modelling were done by means of ANSYSŽ programme. Numerical strength analysis revealed the areas of high effort in the mandibular hard tissues due to the autogenous bone graft implementation and asymmetric way of occlusal loadings.