Bone poroelasticity

Poroelasticity is a well-developed theory for the interaction of fluid and solid phases of a fluid-saturated porous medium. It is widely used in geomechanics and has been applied to bone by many authors in the last 30 years. The purpose of this work is, first, to review the literature related to the application of poroelasticity to the interstitial bone fluid and, second, to describe the specific physical and modeling considerations that establish poroelasticity as an effective and useful model for deformation-driven bone fluid movement in bone tissue. The application of poroelasticity to bone differs from its application to soft tissues in two important ways. First, the deformations of bone are small while those of soft tissues are generally large. Second, the bulk modulus of the mineralized bone matrix is about six times stiffer than that of the fluid in the pores while the bulk moduli of the soft tissue matrix and the pore water are almost the same. Poroelasticity and electrokinetics can be used to explain strain-generated potentials in wet bone. It is noted that strain-generated potentials can be used as an effective tool in the experimental study of local bone fluid flow, and that the knowledge of this technique will contribute to the answers of a number of questions concerning bone mineralization, osteocyte nutrition and the bone mechanosensory system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.