CT Based Three Dimensional Finite Element Model of Cervical Spine

Cervical spine is a mobile area of spine with high susceptibility to injury like sport injuries, pilot ejection, falls, vehicular accidents, etc. Use of finite element (FE) model in understanding the kinematics will provide an insight into the mechanism of neck injuries. A three dimensional (3D) anatomically detailed FE model of cervical spine was developed using computer tomography (CT) images. The model consisted of 39,419 elements with 10,411 nodes. Important anatomical features viz., cortical bone, cancellous bone, transverse process, spinous process, laminae, intervertebral disc, spinal canal were clearly defined for each spinal segment. Material properties were obtained from literature and boundary conditions were simulated similar to the in vitro experiment against which it is validated. Intervertebral range of motion of FE model was compared with previous in vitro and in vivo studies. These comparisons substantiated that, this FE model can effectively reflect physiological motions of human cervical spine and can be used further to study cervical spine injury and dysfunction.