Guwahati, Oct 27: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted model to predict the healing of thigh bone fractures after surgery.
“The model developed by Souptick Chanda, assistant professor, department of biosciences and bioengineering, IIT-G, and his team can be used to assess the healing outcomes of different fracture fixation strategies so that an optimum strategy can be chosen for the patient depending on their personal physiologies and fracture type,” a statement from IIT-G said on Thursday.
“Using such precision models can reduce healing time, lighten the economic burden and pain for patients who need thigh fracture treatment,” it said.
The results of the research have been published in the open-source journal, PLoS One, in a paper co-authored by Chanda and his research scholar, Pratik Nag.
“AI has tremendous potential when it comes to understanding and predicting complex biological phenomena, and hence, can play a big role in health sciences applications,” Chanda said.
The research team has used a combination of Finite Element Analysis and the AI tool, Fuzzy Logic, to understand the healing process of fracture after various treatment methods.
Various bone-growth parameters were used along with a rule-based simulation scheme for this purpose.
The study further examined the influence of different screw fixation mechanisms to compare the fracture healing efficacies of each process. The predictions of healing made by the model agreed well with experimental observations, pointing to its reliability.
“IIT-G’s AI-based simulation model can potentially help a surgeon choose the right implant or technique before a fracture-treatment surgery,” the statement said.
In addition to various biological and patient-specific parameters, the model can also account for different clinical phenomena, such as smoking, diabetes, et al.
The model can also be adapted for veterinary fractures which are physiologically, and in various aspects, similar to those occurring in human patients.
The researchers plan to develop a software/app based on the algorithm that can be used in hospitals and other healthcare institutions as part of their fracture treatment protocols.
The team is presently collaborating with Bhaskar Borgohain and his team of orthopaedists from the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, for animal studies to validate and fine-tune certain parameters.
Research done by IIT-G researchers is useful because the incidence of thigh-bone and hip fractures has increased significantly owing to the increasing geriatric population in the world.
An estimated 2 lakh hip fractures occur every year in India alone, most of which require hospitalisation and trauma care.
Treatment for hip fractures traditionally includes placing of bone plates and rods to bridge the fracture site and promote bone healing.
Fracture treatment methods are intuitively chosen by surgeons based on their experience, and there is no way of predicting the efficacy and success of the treatment method chosen.
“The research from IIT-G will help increase the accuracy rate in decision-making in orthopaedics, thereby reducing the cost and disease burden associated with fracture recovery,” the statement said.