Abstract: A bipolar customised hemi-knee prosthesis is designed to treat maligament bone tumor on the femoral side of a young patient. Design considerations included the close match with the patients anatomy, stress optimisation of the prosthetic components, close conformity between the contacting surfaces of the prosthesis and the tibial cartilage and stability as well as reducing the development time and costs. Computational analysis based on the finite element method is employed to optimise the designs and provide pre-clinical evaluation. The optimised prosthesis was fabricated via rapid manufacture technique and tested in-vitro to evaluate its effectiveness. Clinical application of the prosthesis shows improved functional outcomes. It not only proposes a new concept of bipolar hemi-knee prosthesis, but also provides a general approach for functional design, computational analysis, rapid manufacturing and clinical application of customised prostheses.

Key words: Biomechanics, Bipolar strategy, Functional design, Hemi-knee joint prosthesis