Investigation On The Effects Of Human Weight On Spinal Facet Joints Using Finite Elements Analysis

Lim, Chee Houh (2017) Investigation On The Effects Of Human Weight On Spinal Facet Joints Using Finite Elements Analysis. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Obesity is a growing healthcare issue which always associated with different kind of diseases, such as hypertension, osteoarthritis (OA), intervertebral disc degeneration, body pain and difficulty in physical functioning. Since the obesity has a close relationship with the spinal disorders, it increase the risk and possibility in develop back pain at the lower lumbar spine, which bear the largest mechanical compressive load. Spinal facet joints which are one of the critical components in lumbar spine are thus subjected to high mechanical compressive load and highly exposed to the risk of joint damage and degeneration. Since the concern of facet joints studies with respect to mechanical compressive load is only being given attention recently in this few year due to the difficulty in the modelling of facet surfaces and lack of experimental references related to facet joints, hence, there is a need in the study and analysis of facet joints especially for the effects of human weight on the spinal facet joint. Finite element analysis (FEA) is a suitable method in the study of facet joint since FEA can provide a FE model for repeated simulation which can greatly save the time consuming and more cost-efficient. The main objectives of this study was to develop a verified FE lumbar spine model and investigate the effects of human weight on the spinal facet joint using finite element analysis. The FE lumbar spine was first developed and verified by comparing the intersegmental rotation of the FE model under pure moment of 7.5 Nm in extension and flexion motions with previous in vitro studies. The verified FE model was then subjected to compressive load of 700 N, 900 N and 1100 N, which represented the normal weight, overweight and obese weight to investigate the effect of human weight on the kinematics of lumbar spine and contact pressure on the facet surfaces. The results shown that as the compressive load increased, the intersegmental rotation of lumbar spine and contact pressure on the facet surfaces also increased. Besides, it appeared that L3-L4 region of lumbar spine experienced largest contact pressure compared to other region of lumbar spine in all three loading cases and the contact pressure on facet surfaces during extension motion was much higher than the contact pressure during flexion motion. Moreover, it also found that there was an effect of asymmetry behavior in the lumbar spine.

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