Spinal canal surrogate for testing intradural implants

Abstract

We have designed, built and tested an anthropomorphic-scale surrogate spinal canal, for use in preliminary evaluations of the performance characteristics of a novel intradural spinal cord stimulator. The surrogate employs a silicone mock spinal cord with semi-major and semi-minor diameters of 10 and 6mm, respectively, commensurate with those of actual thoracic-level spinal cord. The axial restoring force provided by the 300 m thick silicone denticulate ligament constructs on the mock cord is ∼ 0.32 N mm -1 over a 1.5mm range of displacement, which is within a factor of 2 of that measured by others in human cadaver specimens. Examples of testing protocols of prototype intradural stimulators that employ this device are discussed. © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd.