Disc height loss under constant compression – time-dependent response.
The intervertebral disc is home to visceoelastic material than deforms under constant load. Its role is to keep vertebrae separated to avoid the bones to approximate one another. Many researchers have seen how the disc gets squashed more under a constant and sustained load. 1 2 3 4 5
Sustained load, as seen in sitting patients with low back pain, is a common clinical complaint that is difficult to describe for the attending doctor without an appropriate model. Why a patient experiences low back pain as a result of not doing anything can be difficult for the patient to understand but using a visceoelastic model that deforms under compression can be helpful in the compliance of improving posture strategies or in the simple drive to get up out of the chair.
Dynamic Disc Designs has just made life a lot easier for doctors to explain this compression phenomenon. Using only the finest materials, these patient education models for spine can be easily accessed to demonstrate how compression of sitting will reduce disc height loss–sending a clear message that the patient should do something to move and help recover the disc hydration.
- Markolf, K.L.,1972. Deformation of the thoracolumbar intervertebral joints in response to external loads : a biomechanical study using autopsy material .J. Bone Jt.Surg.Am.54,511–533. ↩
- Adams, M.A., Hutton,W.C., 1983. The effect of posture on the fluid content of lumbar intervertebral discs. Spine (Philadelphia 1976) 8, 665–671. ↩
- Kazarian, L .E., 1975 . Creep characteristics of the human spinal column. Orthop. Clin. N. Am. 6, 3–18. ↩
- Koeller,W., Funke,F., Hartmann,F., 1984a Biomechanical behavior of human intervertebral discs subjected to long lasting axial loading. Biorheology 21, 675–686 ↩
- Keller, T.S., Spengler, D.M., Hansson, T.H., 1987. Mechanical behavior of the human lumbar spine. Creep analysis during static compressive loading .J.Orthop.Res. 5, 467–478. ↩
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[…] anatomical findings suspected of contributing to dynamic spondylolisthesis. These proxies include disc height loss, thickened ligamentum flavum, facet joint effusion, facet joint angle, and vacuum phenomenon. […]
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