[An in vitro experimental study for 3D motion analysis of the cervical spine with the ACP]

A set of system for in vitro testing and analyzing the 3D motion in the cervical spine specimen before and after the ACP's (anterior cervical plates) implantation is introduced in this paper. Six porcine specimens with C3 - C6 mounted by the custom clamp were used to mimic human physiological cervical motions. A non-contact real-time measurement system based on CCD was used to track segmental cervical motion signals during the motion. A Matlab program based on multibody dynamics was processed to give the angle changes between adjacent vertebras during the motion. The experimental results show that the methodology can appraise the clinical properties of the ACP effectively.