Biomechanical analysis of spinal cord injury during scoliosis correction surgery

Scoliosis correction surgery aims to restore the spine's natural position, but it carries the risk of spinal cord injury due to significant spinal deformation. This study uses finite element analysis (FEA) to understand biomechanical changes in the spinal cord during surgery. The FEA method simplifies problem-solving by replacing complex problem solving with simplified numerical computations. By creating patient-specific models, researchers can assess dynamic changes and stress distribution in the spinal cord. The study found that patients with poor prognoses had concentrated stress in the spinal cord, while those with good prognoses had uniform stress distribution. This suggests a biomechanical mechanism for spinal cord injury during scoliosis correction.

• 1
  Stress concentration in the spinal cord was observed in patients with poor prognosis, aligning with their clinical manifestations of neurological dysfunction. For example, patient a showed stress concentration at the T8-T9 segments, consistent with paraplegia at that level.
• 2
  Patients with good prognoses showed uniform stress distribution in their spinal cord models, correlating with their normal postoperative sensory and motor functions. The internal stresses within each spinal cord model [were] without significant stress concentration areas.
• 3
  Maximum spinal cord displacement in the dynamic simulation was highly correlated with the maximum spinal cord displacement mirrored in medical imaging data, validating this study’s capability to reproduce spinal cord morphological alterations during corrective interventions.