Bovine caudal motion segments were used to investigate the loss of load-bearing ability of the intervertebral disc (IVD) under both quasi-static and cyclic compressive loading combined with torsion and flexion. While the response of the disc to both compressive hyper-flexion and hyper-torsion has been previously investigated much less is known about their individual and combined influence on compressive failure. Eighty motion segments dissected from 41 bovine tails were subjected to quasi-static and cyclic compression with added components of flexion and torsion. The four different combinations of flexion and torsion were 0º torsion/0º flexion, 10º torsion/15º flexion, 10º torsion/0º flexion and 0º torsion/15º flexion. Quasi-static compression failed to show any significant difference among the different combinations of torsion and flexion for failure stress, failure strain and compressive tangent modulus. Cyclic compression indicated a significant influence of torsion in reducing the disc's load-bearing ability. Cyclic loading provides a more sensitive tool for the assessment of potentially damaging mechanical parameters for the IVD.
Intervertebral disc; Quasi-static compression; Cyclic compression; Torsion; Flexion
