Intersomatic Screw Experimental Study to Treat Lumbar Disc Herniations

Abstract

In this work, the biomechanical behavior of an intersomatic screw located in an intervertebral disc after a discectomy is studied. For the analysis, a clamping device was designed to reproduce the rotational movements of the vertebrae. The mechanism was adapted to a Shimadzu® universal mechanical testing machine, using an axial compression load in a range of 0 to 3000 N on two types of specimens, with different properties but with similar geometries, an L2 vertebral unit −L3 from resin vertebrae and an L4-L5 vertebral unit from a porcine specimen. The deformation of the vertebrae was obtained using the Photostress technique. The results show the biomechanical evaluation of an interbody screw, which can be used as an alternative to alleviate pathologies that involve the wear of the lumbar intervertebral disc and increase the quality of life and well-being of people, which is the Third Goal for Development Sustainable (SDG3) of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations.