Multibody approach to musculoskeletal and joint loading

Joint and muscular loads are the major internal loads in the human body. Knowing or being able to estimate those loads is of importance in multiple instances, such as in designing implants, predicting surgical outcomes, in estimating occupational loading, and in designing interventions. Unfortunately, the direct measurement of the body's internal forces is difficult, rather invasive, and requires surgical operations. Therefore, the need is growing for computational tools for muscular, bone and joint loading estimation. This article will present a review of the computational methods that can be utilized for musculoskeletal and joint system loading estimation. © 2014 CIMNE, Barcelona, Spain.