A novel spinal cord surrogate for the study of compressive traumatic spinal cord injuries

Although in vitro studies are frequent for the study of traumatic spine and spinal cord injuries, few include the spinal cord due to its prompt post-mortem decay. Several materials have been proposed to mimic the spinal cord behaviour, but none matched its mechanical properties under transverse compression, which is vital for the study of burst fractures and other injury mechanisms leading to spinal cord compression. In this study, a new material named Soma Foama 15 (Reynolds Advanced Material, USA) was used to manufacture three spinal cord surrogates at 3 mixing ratios of elastomer to catalyst (1:1, 2:1 and 3:1) and tested at three different strain rates (0.5, 5 and 50 .s
⁻¹
). The mixing ratio 3:1 presents a mechanical behaviour comparable to that of the porcine spinal cord at each of these strain rates, making the surrogate a valid substitute up to 75 % of transverse compression.