CARTILAGE INDENTOR INSTRUMENT

摘要

An instrument and technique for measuring the compressive properties of a body (e.g., articular cartilage) are disclosed. The instrument includes an elongated probe (8), a biasing assembly (36) for applying a predetermined pre-load to the body to establish a measurement reference at the predetermined pre-load, an actuator (30) to move the elongated probe to apply a compressive force to the body, and a measurement device (32) which measures displacement of the elongated probe relative to the measurement reference.