In Vivo Characterization of Thoracolumbar Range of Motion in Healthy Populations

Abstract

The long term objective of this research was to investigate thoracolumbar mobility in vivo and develop a method that allows for the comparison of motion data between in vivo and cadaveric models. Many research studies have investigated in vivo motion and the effects of aging on the lumbar spine, but little has been done for the thoracic and thoracolumbar spine. The thoracolumbar spine is commonly affected by adult deformities, resulting in chronic back pain, osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis. The goal of treating these deformities is to return the spine to native condition. In order to accomplish this, research must be conducted on how the native thoracolumbar spine functions in the representative patient population. The first objective of this study was to quantify the effect of aging on the thoracolumbar spine. The in vivo thoracolumbar mobility of healthy adolescents and healthy older adults was compared to investigate how the non-pathologic thoracolumbar spine changes with age. The study results quantified that the healthy adolescent spine has significantly more motion than the healthy older adult spine in three modes of bending. The second study objective was to develop a method that allows for the comparison of spinal motion data in different physiological models and to frame in vivo motion data in a way that is meaningful to clinicians. The analysis technique developed allowed for clinical parameters to be investigated in an in vivo motion model that previously was difficult to measure. The results from this work found that the healthy adolescent spine is more mobile than the healthy older adult spine. The next steps are to directly compare cadaveric and in vivo spinal motion models for healthy older adults. It is important to be able to compare the data from these two models, particularly when designing medical devices. Pediatric and adolescent spinal devices are tested on older adult cadavers. If pediatric and adolescent in vivo motion cannot be compare to older adult cadaveric motion, the use of older adult cadavers cannot be validated.