Abstract
A synthetic spine is a model fabricated from artificial materials consisting of the vertebrae, intervertebral discs and ligaments for spinal testing. The synthetic spine overcomes many difficulties associated with biological specimens such as handling, biohazard concerns, high costs, and limited availability of specimens, quality and large inter-specimen variability. This paper presents the design and development of spinal ligaments to mimic the stiffness of the paediatric ligaments for use in the synthetic spine. Spinal ligaments are uniaxial structures in the spine that carry tensile loads along the direction of the fibres. Early in the research, silicone materials were used to cover the whole spinal unit, but it became apparent that the material responses were inadequate. The synthetic spine was revised to use fibreglass tape to more closely simulate the natural spinal structures. The composite design applied in this paper consisted of soft silicone rubber and fibreglass tape to obtain the natural stiffness that normally occurred in the spinal ligaments.
Highlights
Spinal ligaments are naturally designed so that when it was subjected to different forces and moments it will only resist tensile forces along the directions of the fibres
This paper aims to develop spinal ligaments for paediatric synthetic spine to mimic the movement of the human spine suitable for spinal testing and no interest in clinical purpose
The elastic modulus of the Sorta Clear 40 used in this present study was calculated from Mechanical Data Sheet (MDS) which approximately around 0.62 MPa
Summary
Spinal ligaments are naturally designed so that when it was subjected to different forces and moments it will only resist tensile forces along the directions of the fibres. The main functions of the ligaments are to hold the vertebrae together, stabilise the spine and protect the spinal cord including the disc by allowing limited physiologic motion. There are two primary ligament systems in the spine, the intra-segmental and inter-segmental systems. The intra-segmental system attached individual vertebra together, which includes the ligamentum flavum (LF), interspinous (ISL) and intertransverse (TL) ligaments. The inter-segmental system that holds the vertebrae together includes the anterior (ALL) and posterior (PLL) longitudinal ligaments, and the supraspinous (SSL) ligaments. The spinal ligaments are primarily collagenous except for the ligamentum flavum, which is primarily comprised of elastin. Facet capsulary ligaments (CL) attach the articular processes of the vertebra and encapsulate the facet joint
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