| Summary: | Interbody fusion cages are increasingly used in the treatment of spinal disease and
injury in order to stabilize movement and promote arthrodesis of the vertebral bodies, but
the micro-mechanics of the interaction between the cage and the adjacent host bone is not
fully understood. This information has bearing on post-surgical therapy protocols,
prediction of long-term bone tissue changes, and optimization of cage design. In order to
gain insight into this problem, functional microCT imaging was used to directly evaluate
implant micromotion and full-field vertebral body strains in an animal model
implemented with various configurations of BAK interbody cages. It is believed that
variations in cage design will produce variable implant success, functional fusion will be
related to the extent of implant fixation, and specific strain fields will be associated with
fused and unfused samples. We found that samples ranged from completely unfused
(implant motion) to fully fused with organized trabecular bone (no motion). Strains
concentrated at the implant interface in unfused samples, while fully fused samples
exhibited uniformly distributed strains. === Graduation date: 2004
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