ArticleBiomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology2026
Effect of muscle atrophy on fracture healing: insights from a tibial musculoskeletal-finite element model.
Article in Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with tibial fractures often suffer from muscle atrophy due to aging and postoperative immobility. However, much less is known about how atrophic muscle conditions interact with the microenvironment and influence fracture healing outcomes. To this end, this study developed an atrophy-adjusted tibial fracture musculoskeletal model to simulate physiological loadings on the fractured tibia associated with partial weight-bearing (PWB) walking rehabilitation, incorporating various degrees of muscle atrophy and clinically observed muscle deformation at fracture callus. An anatomically muscle-informed tibial fracture healing model, integrating muscle load distributions onto the insertion surface of the bone geometry, was then used to predict dynamic mesenchymal stem cell differentiations and deviatoric strains during gait. The effects of PWB% and rehabilitation walking speed on healing outcomes in patients with various levels of muscle atrophy were systematically evaluated. The results show that the muscle loadings and knee contact forces substantially decline with the increased level of muscle atrophy. Directly using musculoskeletal simulations without accounting for patient-specific muscle atrophy could overstate temporal fluctuations of healing trajectories, leading to overestimation in the risk of fracture non-union and unsuccessful angiogenesis. Besides, the tolerance of PWB% level and rehabilitation walking speed varies according to different levels of muscle atrophy. Our results can recommend PWB walking protocols to enhance endochondral ossification, while controlling the risk of vessel rupture. The study highlights the impact of muscle atrophy on the early healing process, aiming to assist physiotherapists and orthopedic surgeons in prescribing personalized rehabilitation protocols based on patient-specific muscle conditions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.