Effect of U-shaped implant on the biomechanics of the cervical spine

Fusion has been a standard method of treatment for decades as it tends to reduce or eliminate the pain at the operated segment. However, this method has a drawback that it results in the increase of stress and range of motion (ROM) at the adjacent levels. During the past few decades various implants have been modeled and tested to overcome the issue of adjacent level effects. Most of the implants have gone through various in vitro, in vivo and Finite Element (FE) studies. However, the U-Shaped implant for cervical spine has not been studied in such detail which motivated us to do FE analysis of U-Shaped implant. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of a U-Shaped implant on the biomechanics of the cervical spine. The implant showed reasonable results for adjacent segments and maximum increase in ROM was 14 percent at C3-C4 level for lateral bending. But the results were not promising for restoration at the index level.