3D Dynamic Assessment for Clinical Decision-Making in Adult Spine Deformity Care

Adult spinal deformity (ASD) is a disorder of the spinal column that comprises a wide range of three-dimensional spinal malalignments, often leading to severe disability and significant impairments in activities of daily life. Surgical treatments to correct these deformities can have satisfying effects on pain and function of the patients. However, postoperative complications and revision surgery are common. This is thought to be due to the lack of clear understanding of the impact of the deformities on the mechanical behavior of the spine and the lack of guidelines for surgical treatment planning. The current assessment methods only quantify spinal deformities on two-dimensional radiography and do not evaluate the dynamic compensatory mechanisms and functional limitations of patients. The proposed project aims to develop a patient-specific simulation-based framework that objectively characterize individual patient impairments during dynamic tasks to determine the key biomechanical parameters that are associated with successful treatment outcomes, to ultimately improve ASD care.

Keywords:Computational simulation, Adult spinal deformity, Musculoskeletal model, Medical Imaging, Motion analysis

Disciplines:Musculo-skeletal systems, Biomedical modelling, Machine learning and decision making, Biomedical image processing