title: The bending stiffness of the trunk.
abstract: Much research is done on the physical properties of the isolated human spine. However, little knowledge exists about the relationship between the physical properties of an isolated spine and the physical properties of the whole trunk in vivo. The first part of this article is a literature review. The next part is a description of experiments performed to study the bending stiffness in flexion of the whole trunk in vivo. One hundred fifty measurements were made in unanesthetized subjects and 150 in anesthesized ones. The bending stiffness of the whole trunk in vivo was found to be about 10 times larger the mean bending stiffness of an isolated spine.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000502:physiology; D008022:Ligaments / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D009068:Movement; D013131:Spine / Q000502:physiology*