Development of an Animal Model of Thoracolumbar Burst Fracture Induced Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Here, we describe the design and development of a controlled spinal cord impactor for use in large animal models of SCI in order to more reliably recreate the human injury. A custom designed spinal cord impactor and mounting platform were fabricated to be placed anteriorly or posteriorly over a large animal (e.g., pig, sheep, dog). Repeated impacts demonstrated predictable results with less than 10% variability at each target force. The average impact duration was 71.2 +/- 6.1 msec. At a 40 Newton target, the output force was 41.5 N +/- 1.7%. With a 25 N target, the output was 23.5 N +/- 2.7%; a 15 N target revealed an output of 15.2 N +/- 9.3%. This novel custom designed spinal cord impactor is capable of reliably delivering precise impacts to the spinal cord and will be utilized in future research to study acute traumatic spinal cord injury in a large animal.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2015
Accession Number
AD1003343

Entities

People

  • Brett A. Freedman
  • Daniel M Sciubba
  • Rory J. Petteys

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Compression
  • Computer Programs
  • Data Processing
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Reliability
  • Spinal Cord
  • Spinal Injuries
  • Spine
  • Surgery
  • Technology Transfer
  • Tissues
  • Wounds And Injuries

Readers

  • Battery Technology and Engineering
  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Neurotrauma and Rehabilitation Medicine.