Grant: Project Grant

Up to 2/3 of adults over the age of 65 years will develop some form of spinal deformity. The most severe cases will require surgery to help relieve pain and improve function. While mostly successful, these surgeries have a high re-operation rate of approximately 25%. We aim to develop a biomechanically-based computer model that will predict whether a surgery on adult deformity patients will be successful or not. Our approach will use patient-specific geometry and patient-specific bone and muscle properties and it will predict the forces in the spine, which presumably are linked to failure. We will measure the muscle properties from biopsies acquired intraoperatively. We propose to study a group of 120 patients. A predictive computer model as proposed herein will enable better surgical planning and improved patient outcomes.