Spinal cord deformation during injury of the cervical spine in head-first impact

A. Saari*, E. Itshayek, T. S. Nelson, P. L. Morley, P. A. Cripton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is a need to better understand the biomechanics of spinal cord injuries especially at the level of the spinal cord itself. We report results from a series of head-first impacts using human cadaveric cervical spines (N = 6) and a custom drop tower. To improve the biofidelity of the column response during impact muscle forces were simulated using a constant follower load of 150N. A radio-opaque, biofidelic surrogate cord was imaged using cineradiography at 1000fps to quantify the transverse spinal cord deformation during injury. A variety of injury modes commonly associated with axial head first impact were induced. The average maximum cord compression was 49%, occurring at 12.3ms after impact. The follower load appeared to eliminate "snap-through" buckling in these tests.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Research Council on the Biomechanics of Impact - 2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact, Proceedings
Pages353-356
Number of pages4
StatePublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact - Madrid, Spain
Duration: 20 Sep 200622 Sep 2006

Publication series

NameInternational Research Council on the Biomechanics of Impact - 2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact, Proceedings

Conference

Conference2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact
Country/TerritorySpain
CityMadrid
Period20/09/0622/09/06

Keywords

  • Drop tests
  • Neck
  • Spinal cord injury

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