SYSTEM FOR THE PREDICTION OF BEHAVIOR OF THE SCREW - BONE

INTERFACE, IN LUMBAR FIXING SURGERY VIA TRANSPEDICULAR

Author: Eduardo Osquel Pérez Rivero1
Abstract
Nowadays, transpedicular vertebral fusion surgery represents the fixation technique most
commonly used for the treatment of vertebral disorders of any kind. Its main purpose is to
obtain a solid arthrodesis to alleviate the pain of the patient. However, despite the
effectiveness of this treatment, osteoporosis and the bone structure deficiencies prevalent in
patients because the failure rate in the screw insertion process at the time of surgery and in
the later stage of recovery be high. Causing a fracture in the bone tissue as a consequence of
the high concentration of tensions, the occurrence of landslides or the cutting effect that
separates the screw from the bone tissue and returns certain degrees of freedom to the
damaged section. The main objective of this research is to provide orthopedic surgeons with
a useful tool, based on artificial intelligence and new information technologies, to understand,
formulate and predict the behavior of biological tissues as structural materials and
components. For this, the design of an Expert System was carried out, focused on the
prediction of the behavior of the screw - bone interface. In the process, the lumbar sections
with mechanical fasteners from a population of 50 patients were modeled using the Finite
Element Method. The biomechanical models were constructed from computerized axial
tomography and were subjected to different load and contour conditions. The relationships
of equivalent stresses (Von Mises) - deformations obtained, were used in the mining of data
and elaboration of the Expert System, taking as a reference data of the patients, among which
are included, age range, risk factors and morphological characteristics individual.
Keywords: expert system, finite element method, biomechanical models

1. Mechanical Engineer. Professor of the University of Camagüey, Cuba.