title: Spinal canal surrogate for testing intradural implants.
abstract: We have designed, built and tested an anthropomorphic-scale surrogate spinal canal, for use in preliminary evaluations of the performance characteristics of a novel intradural spinal cord stimulator. The surrogate employs a silicone mock spinal cord with semi-major and semi-minor diameters of 10 and 6 mm, respectively, commensurate with those of actual thoracic-level spinal cord. The axial restoring force provided by the 300 µm thick silicone denticulate ligament constructs on the mock cord is ~ 0.32 N mm(-1) over a 1.5 mm range of displacement, which is within a factor of 2 of that measured by others in human cadaver specimens. Examples of testing protocols of prototype intradural stimulators that employ this device are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA. hiroyuki-oya@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oya
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shurig
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Gillies
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D020007:Implants, Experimental; D008954:Models, Biological; D013115:Spinal Canal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*