The stability of the human spine in compression has attracted a considerable amount of attention in recent years. The passive ligamentous thoracolumbar and lumbar spines are known to exhibit large displacements or hypermobility (i.e., instability in an imperfect column) under compression loads <100N. Since such compression loads are only a small fraction of those supported by the spine even in regular daily activities, let aside the manual material handling tasks, the question arises as to how the spine is stablized in vivo? Various stabilizing mechanisms have been proposed and investigated; wrapping loading [Shirazi-Adl and Parnianpour, 2000], postural adaptations [Shirazi-Adl and parnianpor, 1999], intra-abdominal pressure [Cholewicki et al, 1999] and muscle activation/coactivation [Bergmark, 1989; Crisco and Panjabi, 1991]. In this work, a novel kinematics-based methad [Shirazi-Adl et al., 2002] is first applied to compute muscle forces and internal loads in standing postures under gravity with or without 200N loads held either on sides or close to the body in front. The stability of the system under given loads and prescribed postures is sudsequently examined using both linear bucking analysis based on the deformed configurations and nonlinear analysis while employing a liner stiffness-force relationship for muscules [Bergmark, 1989; Crico and Panjabi, 1991]. The relative accuracy of foregoing methods in stability analysis of some sample structures is also investigated. Moreover, the effect of co-activity on stability of the spine in neutral postures is studied.
Mutifidus in Spinal Stability: Analysis of Inhibition with Muscle Activation Techniques
