Wang Ruofan, Wu Zenghui
Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Spine Disease Prevention and Treatment, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Mar 23;11:1041973. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1041973. eCollection 2023.
Finite element analysis (FEA) is a widely used tool in a variety of industries and research endeavors. With its application to spine biomechanics, FEA has contributed to a better understanding of the spine, its components, and its behavior in physiological and pathological conditions, as well as assisting in the design and application of spinal instrumentation, particularly spinal interbody cages (ICs). IC is a highly effective instrumentation for achieving spinal fusion that has been used to treat a variety of spinal disorders, including degenerative disc disease, trauma, tumor reconstruction, and scoliosis. The application of FEA lets new designs be thoroughly "tested" before a cage is even manufactured, allowing bio-mechanical responses and spinal fusion processes that cannot easily be experimented upon to be examined and "diagnosis" to be performed, which is an important addition to clinical and experimental studies. This paper reviews the recent progress of FEA in spinal ICs over the last six years. It demonstrates how modeling can aid in evaluating the biomechanical response of cage materials, cage design, and fixation devices, understanding bone formation mechanisms, comparing the benefits of various fusion techniques, and investigating the impact of pathological structures. It also summarizes the various limitations brought about by modeling simplification and looks forward to the significant advancement of spine FEA research as computing efficiency and software capabilities increase. In conclusion, in such a fast-paced field, the FEA is critical for spinal IC studies. It helps in quantitatively and visually demonstrating the cage characteristics after implanting, lowering surgeons' learning costs for new cage products, and probably assisting them in determining the best IC for patients.
有限元分析（FEA）是一种在众多行业和研究活动中广泛使用的工具。随着其在脊柱生物力学中的应用，有限元分析有助于更好地理解脊柱、其组成部分以及在生理和病理条件下的行为，还能辅助脊柱器械的设计和应用，特别是脊柱椎间融合器（ICs）。椎间融合器是实现脊柱融合的一种高效器械，已被用于治疗多种脊柱疾病，包括椎间盘退变疾病、创伤、肿瘤重建和脊柱侧弯。有限元分析的应用使得新设计在椎间融合器制造之前就能得到全面“测试”，从而能够对难以通过实验进行研究的生物力学反应和脊柱融合过程进行检查并开展“诊断”，这是对临床和实验研究的重要补充。本文回顾了过去六年有限元分析在脊柱椎间融合器方面的最新进展。它展示了建模如何有助于评估融合器材料、融合器设计和固定装置的生物力学反应，理解骨形成机制，比较各种融合技术的优势，以及研究病理结构的影响。它还总结了建模简化带来的各种局限性，并期待随着计算效率和软件功能的提高，脊柱有限元分析研究能取得重大进展。总之，在这样一个快节奏的领域，有限元分析对脊柱椎间融合器研究至关重要。它有助于定量和直观地展示植入后融合器的特性，降低外科医生对新融合器产品的学习成本，并可能帮助他们为患者确定最佳的椎间融合器。
