A Finite Element Assessment to Compare the Biomechanical Behaviour of Human, Sheep and Chagma Baboon Functional Spine Units

Ideal animal spine models have been used by researchers to compare and evaluate the biomechanical behavior of spine following surgery and implantation due to the growing difficulty in obtaining fresh human spine specimens. Availability and resemblance of sheep and baboon spines to human spine make them suitable for use in biomechanical studies; however the literature on biomechanics of baboon and sheep spine compared to human spine is sparse. In the present study finite element method was used to compare the load transfer and load-displacement characteristics of L3-L4 sheep, baboon and human spines.