MBS-Modeling for Estimation of Stress and Strain in Human Body

Herniated and degenerated intervertebral disk is a painful disease which decreases the patient's quality of life. Because of the enormous pain every movement of the body is avoided and comprised the risk of clumping nerve cords. While the number of patients increases still no proper method is known to measure forces, pressure and torques in transmitted structures of the spine, especially during motion. The only accurate possibility for measurement is to place a sensor directly into the intervertebral disk, which leads beside the normal risk of surgery also to the risk of paraplegia and dangerous infections. Therefore, a new non-invasive method is developed to estimate the mentioned parameters in spine. This method is based on a computer generated model of the human lumbar spine which reflects geometry, surface and biomechanical features in an accurate way.