BEP - Intervertebral Disc

The creep behaviour of a biomimetic artificial intervertebral disc during diurnal loading compared to the human intervertebral disc

Stan Haanen

Degenerative processes of the human intervertebral disc (IVD) represent a significant cause of morbidity, influencing biomechanics of the whole spines plus surrounding tissues. As an alternative to current artificial IVDs (AIDs), a novel biomimetic AID (BioAID) is developed to replace the diseased disc. It is hypothesized that mimicking the native structure of the IVD leads to appropriate biomechanical properties and little complications. In this research, creep behaviour of the BioAID during diurnal loading was compared to the human IVD. Deformation data was obtained by an in vitro compression creep test, including 18 hours preloading (0.1 MPa) and 24 hours dayloading (0.8 MPa). Two models, commonly used to predict creep behaviour, are the stretched exponential (KWW) and Double-Voight (DV) model. After 24 hours of day-loading, the BioAID showed half of the deformation of the human IVD, but it reached its equilibrium more easily than the human IVD. Its creep behaviour was predicted with both models with the same accuracy as the human IVD. These findings indicate that the BioAID is an improvement to current AIDs, since it is able to better mimic the kinematics of the native disc. Hence, this study suggests that the BioAID is suitable for disc replacement.