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An Investigation Of Subaxial Cervical Spine Trauma And Surgical Treatment Through Biomechanical Simulation And Kinematic Analysis, Stewart D. Mclachlin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In vitro biomechanical investigations can help to identify changes in subaxial cervical spine (C3-C7) stability following injury, and determine the efficacy of surgical treatments through controlled joint simulation experiments and kinematic analyses. However, with the large spectrum of cervical spine trauma, a large fraction of the potential injuries have not been examined biomechanically. This includes a lack of studies investigating prevalent flexion-distraction injuries. Therefore, the overall objective of this thesis was to investigate the changes in subaxial cervical spine kinematic stability with simulated flexion-distraction injuries and current surgical instrumentation approaches using both established and novel biomechanical techniques.

Three in vitro …