Finite Element Modeling of Unstable Thoracolumbar Fracture

A finite element model of the T9-L3 spine, which included seven vertebras and six discs, was reconstructed. Geometrical details of T9-L3 spine vertebras were obtained from 64 spiral computed tomography (CT) images of a 40 years old healthy male (65kg and 175cm) without a history of spine injury, osteoporosis and radiographic evidence of degenerative sign. The CT images were scanned and imported into Mimics 10.0 (Materialise, Belgium). The surface model was then exported into Rapidform 2006 (INUS, Korea) to generate and enhance the quality of the solid model. Eventually, it was imported to Abaqus 6.9 (Simulia, USA) for meshing and analysis. Each vertebral body consisted of cortical bone and cancellous bone, and each vertebral disc was composed of nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus, and endplates. Posterior elements were built separately from the vertebral bodies. Based on Boolean operation, the lower half of the T12 segment was resected, and the structure of the posterior part was reserved to establish a finite element model of an unstable thoracolumbar fracture (Fig. 1).