Development and Validation of a 10-Year-Old Child Ligamentous Cervical Spine Finite Element Model

Abstract

Although a number of finite element (FE) adult cervical spine models have been developed to understand the injury mechanisms of the neck in automotive related crash scenarios, there have been fewer efforts to develop a child neck model. In this study, a 10-year-old ligamentous cervical spine FE model was developed for application in the improvement of pediatric safety related to motor vehicle crashes. The model geometry was obtained from medical scans and meshed using a multi-block approach. Appropriate properties based on review of literature in conjunction with scaling were assigned to different parts of the model. Child tensile force–deformation data in three segments, Occipital-C2 (C0–C2), C4–C5 and C6–C7, were used to validate the cervical spine model and predict failure forces and displacements. Design of computer experiments was performed to determine failure properties for intervertebral discs and ligaments needed to set up the FE model. The model-predicted ultimate displacements and forces were within the experimental range. The cervical spine FE model was validated in flexion and extension against the child experimental data in three segments, C0–C2, C4–C5 and C6–C7. Other model predictions were found to be consistent with the experimental responses scaled from adult data. The whole cervical spine model was also validated in tension, flexion and extension against the child experimental data. This study provided methods for developing a child ligamentous cervical spine FE model and to predict soft tissue failures in tension.

Development and Tensile Investigation of a 3-year-old Cervical Spine Finite Element Model

“…Compared to these two experimental values, the deviations in ultimate failure displacement were 8.6% and 25.5%, whereas deviations in ultimate failure force were 17.5% and 26.1%. We observed that failure occurred in the upper surface of the C3 endplate and the growth plate, similar to the locations predicted by Dong based on dynamic tensile simulations from a 10-year-old [15].…”

“…The pediatric cervical spine is significantly different from the adult spine with regard to its anatomical and material properties [2,10,15,31]. In this study, the C2-C7 cervical segmental response was first validated under the dynamic tensile response and the dynamic extension-flexion response were then compared with both segmental and global experimental data.…”

“…The 3-D geometry data for the osseous structures were reconstructed in 3-D using MIMICS (Version 12, Materialise Inc., Leuven, Belgium), as shown in Figure 1b. The geometries of the ligaments, cartilage, and intervertebral discs not visible in the CT images were filled in between the bony segments based on pediatric cervical anatomy [3,[12][13][14] and pediatric spinal models [7][8][9]15]. In our study, we adopted a multi-block approach to generate vertebral body meshes efficiently (ANSYS ICEM CFD/HEXA 12.0, Ansys, Canonsburg, PA, USA).…”

Investigation of pediatric neck response and muscle activation in low-speed frontal impacts

“…The10-year-old pediatric ligamentous cervical spine model of head up to the T1 level was developed in a previous study (Dong et al 2013). The neck model, including muscles as shown in Figure 1, was created using the explicit FE solver LS-Dyna 971 (LSTC, Livermore, CA).…”

Three-dimensional geometric model of the middle segment of the thoracic spine based on graphical images for finite element analysis

“…Many phenomena can be described in terms of partial differential equations, and the finite element method (FEM) is a numerical approach with which these equations can be solved in approximate terms (Fish and Belytschko, 2009). In recent decades, computational studies using FEM have successfully analyzed biomechanical systems and have made important contributions to understanding the mechanical behavior of the human spine (Cheng et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2013;Fok et al, 2010;Ghista et al, 1988;Kakol et al, 2003;Lan et al, 2013;Lodygwski et al, 2005;Meijer et al, 2010;Rajasekaran et al, 2011;Teo and Ng, 2001;Travert et al, 2011;Tyndyk et al, 2007;Van Der Plaats et al, 2007;Wierszycki et al, 2006;Xia et al, 2003). Over time, different geometric models have been used, including everything from simple versions containing beam elements, represented by interconnected cylinders and bars (Ghista et al, 1988), to more comprehensive volumetric models of the spine.…”