Tensile Mechanics of the Developing Cervical Spine

Effect of displacement rate on the tensile mechanics of pediatric cervical functional spinal units

“…The tensile mechanics measured in this study exhibit similar trends to those of other cervical spine tensile experiments (Yoganandan et al, 1996;Van Ee et al, 2000;Ching et al, 2001). The work by Van Ee et al (2000) provides human stiffness and tolerance data for young adult functional spinal units at a quasi-static rate (2 mm/s).…”

“…All of the baboon tissues came from animals that were previously used and euthanized as part of other unrelated research projects which did not involve the musculoskeletal system. These specimens were all males, to control the effect of gender, and of similar age (1070.6 human equivalent years) to control for maturation effects (Nuckley et al, 2000;Ching et al, 2001). The developmental age of each cadaver baboon specimen was determined based upon a skeletal maturation (bone ossification) index.…”

A Simulation Study of Spine Biofidelity in the Hybrid-III 6-Year-Old ATD

“…Therefore, scaling factors were used to alter the joint characteristics to match test results. For the added thoracic spine joint, the translational stiffness and damping coefficient in 3 directions were initially defined as 1 × 10 5 N/m and 10 Ns/m, respectively (Ching et al 2001;Panjabi et al 2001), and its rotational stiffness and damping coefficient were initially defined as 200 and 100 Nms/rad, respectively (Ash et al 2009;Sherwood et al 2003). Thoracic spine joint characteristics were altered to match the biomechanical data selected in this study.…”

Developmental biomechanics of the cervical spine: Tension and compression

“…This research effort, an extension of the work by Ching et al (2001), aimed to define the relationship between spinal maturation and the functional (characteristics prior to failure) and failure mechanics of the cervical spine. The equations (corridors) defining the functional relationships in tension and compression will support the physical and computational modeling of neck injuries by enabling the scaling of mechanical properties to be age appropriate.…”

“…While their work provided a first glimpse of the developmental pattern of tensile cervical spine mechanics, they acknowledged the limitations of their animal model (quadruped) and combined male and female sample group and suggested that ''additional experimental evaluation [be] conducted using another animal modely''. Thus, Ching et al (2001) examined the tensile mechanics of the immature spine in a baboon model. They found categorical increases in spinal stiffness and ultimate failure load between their samples of 3, 6, 12, and 20 years of age.…”