DEVELOPMENT OF A PARAMETRIC SUBJECT SPECIFIC FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF THE LOWER CERVICAL SPINE TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF DISEASE ON THE MOTION PATTERNS
Clinical investigations show that the cervical spine presents wide inter individual variability, where its motion patterns and load sharing strongly depend on the anatomy. The magnitude and scope of cervical diseases, including disc degeneration, stenosis, and spondylolisthesis, constitute serious health and socioeconomic challenges that continue to increase along with the world"s growing aging population. Although complex exact finite element (FE) modeling is feasible and reliable for biomechanical studies, its clinical application has been limited as it is time consuming and constrained to the input geometry, typically based on one or few subjects. The objective of this study was twofold: first to develop a validated parametric subject specific FE model that automatically updates the geometry of the lower cervical spine based on different individuals; and second to investigate the motion patterns and biomechanics associated with typical cervical spine diseases. Six healthy volunteers participated in thi.