Subject-Specific Experimental Validation of a C27 Cervical Spine Finite Element Model

Computational simulations of the spine have the ability to quantify both the external (i.e. angular rotation) and internal (i.e. stresses and strains) responses to external loading. This is an advantage over cadaveric bench top studies, which are limited to studying mostly external responses. Finite element (FE) analysis has been used extensively to investigate the behavior of the normal cervical spine in addition to its diseased and degenerated states [1,2].