There is a need to better understand the biomechanics of spinal cord injuries especially at the level of the spinal cord itself. Results are reported 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. For the covering abstract see ITRD E141569.
Samenvatting