Patient-Specific Templating of Lumbar Total Disk Replacement to Restore Normal Anatomy and Function

Computational Challenges in Tissue Engineering for the Spine

This paper deals with a brief review of the recent developments in computational modelling applied to innovative treatments of spine diseases. Additionally, it provides a perspective on the research directions expected for the forthcoming years. The spine is composed of distinct and complex tissues that require specific modelling approaches. With the advent of additive manufacturing and increasing computational power, patient-specific treatments have moved from being a research trend to a reality in clinical practice, but there are many issues to be addressed before such approaches become universal. Here, it is identified that the major setback resides in validation of these computational techniques prior to approval by regulatory agencies. Nevertheless, there are very promising indicators in terms of optimised scaffold modelling for both disc arthroplasty and vertebroplasty, powered by a decisive contribution from imaging methods.

Multiobjective Design Optimization of a Biconcave Mobile-Bearing Lumbar Total Artificial Disk Considering Spinal Kinematics, Facet Joint Loading, and Metal-on-Polyethylene Contact Mechanics

Total disk arthroplasty (TDA) using an artificial disk (AD) is an attractive surgical technique for the treatment of spinal disorders, since it can maintain or restore spinal motion (unlike interbody fusion). However, adverse surgical outcomes of contemporary lumbar TDAs have been reported. We previously proposed a new mobile-bearing AD design concept featuring a biconcave ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) mobile core. The objective of this study was to develop an artificial neural network (NN) based multiobjective optimization framework to refine the biconcave-core AD design considering multiple TDA performance metrics, simultaneously. We hypothesized that there is a tradeoff relationship between the performance metrics in terms of range of motion (ROM), facet joint force (FJF), and polyethylene contact pressure (PCP). By searching the resulting three-dimensional (3D) Pareto frontier after multiobjective optimization, it was found that there was a “best-tradeoff” AD design, which could balance all the three metrics, without excessively sacrificing each metric. However, for each single-objective optimum AD design, only one metric was optimal, and distinct sacrifices were observed in the other two metrics. For a commercially available biconvex-core AD design, the metrics were even worse than the poorest outcomes of the single-objective optimum AD designs. Therefore, multiobjective design optimization could be useful for achieving native lumbar segment biomechanics and minimal PCPs, as well as for improving the existing lumbar motion-preserving surgical treatments.