Analysis of stress-strain distribution within a spinal segment

Abstract

The biomechanical feedback of biological tissue is difficult to measure. A spinal segment model can be used to obtain fundamental information by means of a computer simulation using finite element analysis. The goal of this work is to study the biomechanical behavior of a spinal segment under varying conditions related to the deterioration of the material properties of the IVD. Decisions about the methodology of this research and get satisfactory answers had to be made in the very early stages of the project. Since it is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain the complete complex data about the response of different components of the system by means of measurements in vivo, and in the view that measurements in vitro are not feasible due to the lack of available spinal segments as well as economic and time constraints, the situation called for the development of a reliable computational model. Such a model would allow the investigation of biomechanical deficiencies within a geometrically identical pathological spinal segment and assist the proper understanding of the role played by each anatomical structure of the system.