Stress distribution in vertebral bone and pedicle screw and screw –bone load transfers among various fixation methods for lumbar spine surgical alignment: A finite element study

Pedicle-screw (PS)-based spine fusion is a standard treatment for degenerative spinal disorders which aims to consolidate the spine and restores the spinal stability [1,2]. Despite the continuous advances in PS designs and fixation techniques over the last two decades, failures of spinal implants, such as PS breakage [3], loosening and pullout, have not been fully eliminated in post-surgical spines [4 –6]. Excessive stress concentrations within the vertebral bone after the PS-fixation of the spine is one major cause for the PS loosening or pullout while the excessive stress in the implants could result in the structural failure of the implants [7].

Source: Medical Engineering and Physics - October 18, 2018 Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Ming Xu, James Yang, Isador Lieberman, Ram Haddas Source Type: research