Stress Analysis of Intervertebral Substitute in Lumbar Reconstruction Operation

Abstract

Recently, there is a tendency that number of the lumbago patient is increased. In order to cure the patients who suffer from the lumbar disease, external load is applied on the intervertebral substitute in the medical treatment. It is important to clarify the stress distribution in the intervertebral substitute based on the research of biomechanics. In this study, we analyzed the stress distribution in the intervertebral substitute by using photoelastic stress-freezing technique. Three-dimensional stress distribution is obtained for intervertebral substitute under vertical compressive load and the effect of loading angle on the stress distribution is clarified. Moreover, stress distribution for intervertebral substitute inserted in carbon cage is analyzed and load transmission ratio in intervertebral substitute is discussed.