18th ISB # 514 Paper by Teo EC, MPE, NTU, Singapore

Biomechanical variations in cervical spinal responses due to the changes in the material characteristics of ligamentous tissues and intervertebral disc, and facetectomy are a subject of concern for the diagnosis of spinal stability. There are many in vitro and finite element (FE) biomechanical studies to evaluate the effects of facetectomy, disc and ligamentous tissues based on injured and stabilized (normal) cervical spines under various physiological load configurations1,6,7,9,12. In this parametric study, FE approach was adopted to evaluate the roles of ligaments, facets, and disc nucleus of human lower cervical spine (C4-C6) in the redistribution of load under axial compression.