Highlights
- •Two different tendon behaviors were distinguished.
- •Stress–strain tendon curves exhibit proportionality between regions.
- •A reference of the mechanical properties of foot tendons was presented.
- •A criterion to quantify the regions of the stress–strain curve was defined.
Abstract
Backgrounds
The aim of this study was to assess the mechanical properties of the main balance
tendons of the human foot in vitro reporting mechanical structural properties and mechanical material properties separately.
Tendon structural properties are relevant for clinical applications, for example in
orthopedic surgery to elect suitable replacements. Tendon material properties are
important for engineering applications such as the development of refined constitutive
models for computational simulation or in the design of synthetic materials.
Methods
One hundred uniaxial tensile tests were performed to obtain the mechanical response
of the main intrinsic and extrinsic human foot tendons. The specimens were harvested
from five frozen cadaver feet including: Extensor and Flexor tendons of all toes,
Tibialis Anterior and Posterior tendons and Peroneus Brevis and Longus tendons.
Findings
Cross-sectional area, load and strain failure, Young's modulus and ultimate tensile
stress are reported as a reference of foot tendon mechanical properties. Two different
behaviors could be differentiated. Tibialis and Peroneus tendons exhibited higher
values of strain failure compared to Flexor and Extensor tendons which had higher
Young's modulus and ultimate tensile stress. Stress–strain tendon curves exhibited
proportionality between regions. The initial strain, the toe region and the yield
point corresponded to the 15, 30 and 70% of the strain failure respectively.
Interpretation
Mechanical properties of the lesser-studied human foot tendons are presented under
the same test protocol for different engineering and clinical applications. The tendons
that work at the inversion/eversion plane are more deformable at the same stress and
strain rate than those that work at the flexion/extension plane.
Abbreviations:
CSA (cross-sectional area), EDB (extensor digitorum brevis), EDL (extensor digitorum longus), EHL (extensor hallucis longus), FDB (flexor digitorum brevis), FDL (flexor digitorum longus), FHL (flexor hallucis longus), PB (peroneus brevis), PL (peroneus longus), TA (tibialis anterior), TP (tibiales posterior)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 27, 2016
Accepted:
May 24,
2016
Received in revised form:
March 16,
2016
Received:
August 6,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
