{"id":1361,"date":"2010-10-14T18:58:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T18:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/?p=1361"},"modified":"2010-10-14T18:58:37","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T18:58:37","slug":"water-cuts-through-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/?p=1361","title":{"rendered":"Water cuts through bones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1362\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><strong> <\/strong><strong><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1362\" href=\"http:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/?attachment_id=1362\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1362\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1362\" title=\"waterjet\" src=\"http:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/waterjet-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/strong><p id=\"caption-attachment-1362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water jets at various pressures drilled into a human heel bone. Higher-pressure jets tend to make smaller holes. (Photo: Steven den Dunnen)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>High-pressure water jets might be just the tools orthopaedic surgeons  need. Biomechanical engineers have started working on their development.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some things have to get worse before they get better. Take for  instance local injuries to knee cartilage, which are treated by removing  the damaged tissue, followed by hammering a series of 3-millimetre  holes into the bone&#8217;s head. This treatment, devised by Dr Richard  Steadman in 1981, is based on the healing properties of the ensuing  blood and bone marrow cells, which form a secondary cartilage layer  within about a week&#8217;s time. The trouble though is that hammering holes  is not a very precise procedure.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Enter the Healing Water project, a  STW-sponsored programme at TU Delft and the Amsterdam Medical Centre  (AMC). The project aims to develop a bone-drilling device based on  multiple water jets operating at 300 plus bar. PhD student, Steven den  Dunnen, has performed preliminary tests that clearly show the piercing  power of the jets (and the surprisingly big backsplash). He has worked  on the bones of goats, sheeps, pigs and humans, finding that goat bones  are about as fragile as human bones. Moreover, there is a large variety  among individuals regarding bone hardness, which depends on age, sex,  health and medications. Den Dunnen&#8217;s PhD supervisor, Dr Gabrielle  Tuijthof (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering), explains that  further research during the next three years should optimise control  over the water jet technique.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, medical researcher Aimee  Kok MD, of AMC, will study the medical aspects of the Steadman therapy,  advising on the optimal depth, configuration and diameters of the  holes.<br \/>\nAssuming the Healing Water project lives up to expectations,  Tuijthof sees further opportunities for using water jets in  orthopaedics. In time, water jets could replace all orthopaedic saws and  drills in the operation theatre, offering a fast, clean and  controllable technology. But don&#8217;t forget to take cover from the  backsplash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High-pressure water jets might be just the tools orthopaedic surgeons need. Biomechanical engineers have started working on their development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[325],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-delta","tag-orthopaedics-water-jet-biomechanics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joswassink.nl\/insight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}