Development of synthetic spine for biomechanical research: An overview

Human and animal cadaveric spines are the most common specimens used in biomechanical investigations. However, biological cadaveric spines come with a lot of disadvantages, which resulted in questionable reliability of the data obtained. This motivated the authors to look at the development of a working synthetic spine in motion segments because synthetic materials have been used widely to replace the cadaveric specimens especially for bone testing. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current development of a working synthetic spine and why it is crucial to consider synthetic spine as another alternative specimens to replace human and animal cadaveric spines for biomechanical research. The development of synthetic spines studies in recent years showed a great potential to replicate the human cadaveric spine. Although some of the motions were quite stiff in comparison with human cadaveric motions, with further adjustment, the improved synthetic spine can potentially benefit and transform the spinal biomechanical investigations in the future.