Development and Validation of A C0–C7 FE Complex for Biomechanical Study

Abstract

In this study, the digitized geometrical data of the embalmed skull and vertebrae (C0-C7) of a 68-year old male cadaver were processed to develop a comprehensive, geometrically accurate, nonlinear C0-C7 FE model. The biomechanical response of human neck under physiological static loadings, near vertex drop impact and rear-end impact (whiplash) conditions were investigated and compared with published experimental results. Under static loading conditions, the predicted moment-rotation relationships of each motion segment under moments in midsagittal plane and horizontal plane agreed well with experimental data. In addition, the respective predicted head impact force history and the S-shaped kinematics responses of head-neck complex under near-vertex drop impact and rear-end conditions were close to those observed in reported experiments. Although the predicted responses of the head-neck complex under any specific condition cannot perfectly match the experimental observations, the model reasonably reflected the rotation distributions among the motion segments under static moments and basic responses of head and neck under dynamic loadings. The current model may offer potentials to effectively reflect the behavior of human cervical spine suitable for further biomechanics and traumatic studies.

A three-dimensional finite element model of the cervical spine: an investigation of whiplash injury

“…In the current whiplash study, the predicted variations of rotation angles at different levels of the motion segments were well compatible with the experimental findings [30,40]. During 50-75 ms time period, the whole cervical spine formed an S-shaped curvature, which was clearly observed in simulation.…”

“…Meyer et al [18] defined cervical vertebrae by shell elements and modelled the ligaments using spring elements. Zhang et al [40] represented the ligaments by using tension-only cable elements. In study of [35], although the capsular ligaments at C0-C1 facet and the alar ligaments at dental-atlantal joint were modelled as eight-node brick element, stress and strain were not analyzed.…”

A dynamic finite element model of human cervical spine with in vivo kinematic validation

“…On the one hand, the spinal materials were inhomogeneous, viscoelastic, and nonlinear. Due to the current difficulty to obtain the material properties of the subject in vivo, most previous cervical spine FE models [8,9,30] employed linear material properties for the simulation, similar material definitions were also adopted in this work [14]. This may has effect on FE simulation results.…”

“…Although dynamic models can effectively predict the gross kinematic response under the dynamic loads, they did not predict the stresses and strains. A FE model of C0-C7 has been established and validated with the experimental data under several loading conditions by Zhang et al [8]. In order to predict the stresses and strains inside the intervertebral discs of cervical spine, Pérez del Palomar et al [9] have developed a three-dimensional (3D) FE model of C0-C7.…”

Finite Element Analysis Study of the Influence of Simulated Surgical Methods on Kinematics of a Model of the Full Cervical Spine

“…First, a model of the full cervical spine (herein, defined as C0-T1, or C0-C7, or C1-T1, or C1-C7) is used in only a few studies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Second, to the best of the present workers' knowledge, there are no studies in which a model of the full intact cervical spine and its modification to simulate each of the three most widely used surgical method (ACD, ACDF, and TDR) was used.…”