Musculoskeletal system and artificial replacements
Development and Structural Analysis of a Vertebral Body Replacement
Project description:
CAD model of engineering design of vertebral body replacement
Mises stress distribution [MPa] during compresive load of the vertebral body replacement; a. Stress distribution on the surface of the replacement; b. Stress distribution in a view cut.
A vertebral body replacement is used in case of serious fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine, in case of post-traumatic kyphosis of thoracic or lumbar spine, as a solution of states which were caused by primary or secondary tumors and in cases of degenerative and infectious diseases which treatment is connected with resection of vertebral bodies. Application of vertebral body replacement is based on fusion concept i.e. intergrowth of vertebras and intervertebral discs as well in range of one or more spine segments.
A vertebral body replacement was designed by designers of Medin Orthopaedics a.s. and a computational structural analysis of the vertebral body design was carried out by researches of Laboratory of biomechanics under cooperation of both associates in case of project FT-TA3/131. The vertebral body was designed as a telescopic, modular concept with replaceable contact plates which could be parallel or skewed. One single constructional design was analysed but two material variations of contact plates were probed i.e. a titanium alloy Ti6Al4V version and poly-ether-ether-keton (PEEK) version were compared. The executed structural analysis revealed a need of all-titanium construction due to strength arguments.
Resesrchers:
Medin Orthopaedics a.s. (Ing. Daniel Bodlák, Ing. František Denk)