Relative strength of thoracic vertebrae in axial compression versus flexion

Sensitivity of patient-specific vertebral finite element model from low dose imaging to material properties and loading conditions

“…They showed that strength in anterior bending was weaker, and was moderately correlated with strength in axial compression. An experimental study [4] with donor-matched vertebrae confirmed these results, which are in agreement with ours. As opposed to our study, the chosen loading conditions, a combination of axial displacement and anterior rotation, made the amount of anterior moment undetermined.…”

“…In the modeling approach, the chosen loading conditions used must reflect in vivo loading conditions, to allow interpretation of the results. Vertebral behavior differences between axial compression and anterior bending are an important issue [1,4,14,21]. Anterior bending can be simulated either by inducing a moment or a rotation to the superior endplate, or by moving the load location in the antero-posterior direction (eccentric compression).…”

Effect of the metastatic defect on the structural response and failure process of human vertebrae: An experimental study

“…The differences in correlation between the axial and bending parameters could be explained from a mechanics of solids approach. In osteoporotic vertebrae, compressive strength was reported to explain 52 to 69% of the change in the compressive stiffness of the vertebrae (Buckley et al, 2009;Crawford and Keaveny, 2004;Crawford et al, 2003;Hou et al, 1998). However, marked destruction of the vertebral bone by the lytic lesion is likely to result in the transfer of the loading to the remaining bone within the vertebra and the surrounding vertebral cortex.…”

Investigation of the failure behaviour of vertebral trabecular architectures under uni-axial compression and wedge action loading conditions

“…They found that the bending rigidity was not correlated to the compressive rigidity and concluded that improved fracture risk prediction could be achieved by a consideration of both the bending and compressive behaviour of the vertebra. Buckley et al performed mechanical testing on thoracic vertebrae under compression and flexure loading conditions and found that the flexure strength was 40% lower than the compression strength [9].…”