Biomechanics and numerical evaluation of cervical porcine models considering compressive loads using 2-D classic computer tomography CT, 3-D scanner and 3-D computed tomography

In this paper the biomechanical behavior and numerical evaluation results of three C3-C5 porcine cervical models created with different modeling techniques are shown. The objective of this evaluation is to know the differences between the biomechanical effects on a bone graft, which replaces a damaged C4 vertebral body, a titanium alloy (Ti-6A1-4V) cervical plate, used to isolate the C4 damaged vertebra, and the influence on the compressive loads on the complete and instrumented C3-C5 cervical model. The biomechanical integrity of the healthy C3 and C5 vertebral body after the fixation of the cervical plate using titanium alloy screws is considered. Besides, 2-D Computer Tomography classic technique, 3-D Scanner Z-Corp 700 and a CT scanning Philips Brilliance system was used to create the three FEM models. In addition, 3-D Software as Pro-E Wildfire 4.0, ScanIP 3.1, UGS NX-4 and Geomagics R 10.0 was used to create specific numerical model. Main displacements and von Misses stresses between the upper and lower surfaces of the vertebral bodies and the bone graft and the influence of the titanium alloy (Ti-6A1-4V) screws on the vertebral body of C3 and C5 were evaluated. The contribution of this study is to optimize the actual surgical technique once the numerical results on the FEM model have been analyzed. In other words, the numerical disparity between classic CT techniques versus 3-D modern techniques is established.