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. 2013;16(12):1278-86.
doi: 10.1080/10255842.2012.668537. Epub 2012 May 3.

A combined numerical and experimental technique for estimation of the forces and moments in the lumbar intervertebral disc

Shaobai Wang  1 , Won Man Park, Hemanth R Gadikota, Jun Miao, Yoon Hyuk Kim, Kirkham B Wood, Guoan Li
Affiliations

A combined numerical and experimental technique for estimation of the forces and moments in the lumbar intervertebral disc

Shaobai Wang et al. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2013.

Abstract

Evaluation of the loads on lumbar intervertebral discs (IVD) is critically important since it is closely related to spine biomechanics, pathology and prosthesis design. Non-invasive estimation of the loads in the discs remains a challenge. In this study, we proposed a new technique to estimate in vivo loads in the IVD using a subject-specific finite element (FE) model of the disc and the kinematics of the disc endplates as input boundary conditions. The technique was validated by comparing the forces and moments in the discs calculated from the FE analyses to the in vitro experiment measurements of three corresponding lumbar discs. The results showed that the forces and moments could be estimated within an average error of 20%. Therefore, this technique can be a promising tool for non-invasive estimation of the loads in the discs and may be extended to be used on living subjects.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement

None

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Experiment setup a) Installation of the lumbar MSU on the 6DOF robotic system. b) Capturing fluoroscopic images of the MSU using DFIS.
Fig 2
Fig 2
Reproduction of the positions of the vertebrae using an established image matching protocol.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Registration of the coordinate system a) Determination of the coordinate system for the IVD center and the principal directions. Recording the relative position of the coordinate system and several titanium beads using a digitizer. b) Registering the coordinate system with the FEA model by matching the titanium beads.
Fig 4
Fig 4
Schematic of the FE model of an IVD
Fig 5
Fig 5
Comparison of the force-displacement curves between FE analyses and experiment measurements under various loading cases for IVD#1.
Fig 6
Fig 6
Comparison of the force-displacement curves between FE analyses and experiment measurements under various loading cases for IVD#2.
Fig 7
Fig 7
Comparison of the force-displacement curves between FE analyses and experiment measurements under various loading cases for IVD#3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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