The cervical spine locking plate is theoretically safer than the Caspar system because the posterior vertebral body cortex is not breached by the fixation screws, and the screws are less likely to back out anteriorly and irritate the esophagus. According to these results, the cervical spine locking plate system is biomechanically equivalent to and in some cases more stable than the Caspar system for fixation of a severe compressive flexion injury.
This study was designed to investigate the relationship between trunk muscle fatigue and associated changes in the electromyographic (EMG) signals during a dynamic iso-inertial test. Eleven subjects performed dynamic trunk flexion/extension movements against 40% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) torque until exhaustion in a tri-axial trunk dynamometer. EMG parameters in the time and frequency domain were studied by analysing changes of the signal amplitudes and the spectral density (using the zero-crossing-rate and the median frequency). The kinematics of the movement were analysed according to the movement velocities and the deviations from the required movement plane. The flexion and extension velocities decreased from the beginning to the end of the test. Movement deviations from the sagittal plane into the frontal and transverse plane increased with increasing test duration, as did the EMG amplitude. The median frequency during periods with maximum muscle activity decreased, as did the zero-crossing-rate. The increase in amplitude and decrease in median frequency were more pronounced in the trunk flexors than in the trunk extensors. The parameters of median frequency, zero-crossing-rate and amplitude seem to be sensitive identifiers of muscle fatigue during well-controlled dynamic contractions. While the kinematic data did not yield any information on the mechanisms of the fatigue, changes in the EMG parameters demonstrated that the duration of the test was limited by the fatigue of the trunk flexors.
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