Experimental study of temperature rise during bone drilling process.

An excessive temperature rise during bone drilling processes can result in osteonecrosis or impairment of the osteogenic potential. However, the effect of geometric parameters of the surgical drill bit, drilling process parameters, and the bone type on the temperature rise have not been fully investigated. In this study, thermocouples are introduced to measure the temperature rise, and three experimental designs are utilized separately to investigate the temperature rise with respect to each parameter, identify the effect of important drill geometric parameters and their interaction on the temperature rise, and develop a quadratic model of the temperature rise with respect to process parameters. The results show that the temperature rise can be significantly affected by geometric parameters of the surgical drill bit, drilling process parameters, and the bone type. The effects of the point angle and the interaction between the web thickness and the helix angle on the temperature rise are very significant. The quadratic regression equation obtained using response surface methodology can provide accurate predictions under a wide range of drilling process conditions, and the optimized drilling process parameters are in good agreement with the experimental results.