Finite Element Analysis of human Lumbar Disc and Two Artificial Implants

Low back pain is a common problem that affects a large portion of the adult population. Thedegeneration of the intervertebral disc is the leading cause of pain. Many confounding factors likeaging, biological and genetic may play a significant role in the degenerative process. For the lumbarspine, intervertebral disc prostheses are a viable option for restoring a vertebral segment's mobility. Inthis study, the images of computed tomography (CT) scans were converted to ۳D models usingMaterialise Mimics and Catia software. The ۳D model of maverick ® and SB Charite III ® artificial discswas imported in Abaqus software for finite element analysis. Ultimately, the biomechanical and keeleffects of two different types of artificial discs (Maverick ® and Charite III ®) were compare to humandiscs. Results showed the keel in both implants introduces a reduction in the amount of stress to theimplant-end plate interface and bone, and the results were well fit with previous research.

Keywords:

Spine Biomechanics , Finite element analysis , Intervertebral disc , Disc Arthroplasty , Stressdistribution