Numerical analysis of the influence of nucleus pulposus removal on the biomechanical behavior of a lumbar motion segment

Juying Huang, Huagang Yan, Fengzeng Jian, Xingwen Wang and Haiyun Li

Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2015, vol. 18, issue 14, 1516-1524

Abstract: Nucleus replacement was deemed to have therapeutic potential for patients with intervertebral disc herniation. However, whether a patient would benefit from nucleus replacement is technically unclear. This study aimed to investigate the influence of nucleus pulposus (NP) removal on the biomechanical behavior of a lumbar motion segment and to further explore a computational method of biomechanical characteristics of NP removal, which can evaluate the mechanical stability of pulposus replacement. We, respectively, reconstructed three types of models for a mildly herniated disc and three types of models for a severely herniated disc based on a L4–L5 segment finite element model with computed tomography image data from a healthy adult. First, the NP was removed from the herniated disc models, and the biomechanical behavior of NP removal was simulated. Second, the NP cavities were filled with an experimental material (Poisson's ratio = 0.3; elastic modulus = 3 MPa), and the biomechanical behavior of pulposus replacement was simulated. The simulations were carried out under the five loadings of axial compression, flexion, lateral bending, extension, and axial rotation. The changes of the four biomechanical characteristics, i.e. the rotation degree, the maximum stress in the annulus fibrosus (AF), joint facet contact forces, and the maximum disc deformation, were computed for all models. Experimental results showed that the rotation range, the maximum AF stress, and joint facet contact forces increased, and the maximum disc deformation decreased after NP removal, while they changed in the opposite way after the nucleus cavities were filled with the experimental material.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10255842.2014.921815 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:gcmbxx:v:18:y:2015:i:14:p:1516-1524

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/gcmb20

DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2014.921815

Access Statistics for this article

Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering is currently edited by Director of Biomaterials John Middleton

More articles in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().