Date of Award
Spring 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.
Department
Bioengineering
First Advisor
Maryam Mobed-Miremadi
Second Advisor
Bill Lu
Abstract
Degenerative disc disease has been one of the leading causes of debilitating back pain, affecting more than 400 million people yearly worldwide. This disease is so common that top neurosurgeons around the world are performing multiple surgeries every day to help relieve their patients of constant pain. The recovery time after an intense lumbar replacement surgery could vary from patient to patient but something most patients have in common is they do not want to do it again because they need to replace the disc after a few years. This is why our team is led by a top Neurosurgeon, Dr. Todd Lanman aims to create an artificial lumbar replacement disc that lasts years longer. Our project comprises research that covers the biomechanics, clinical performance, and biomaterials that allow for the optimization of our device. It also includes a breakdown of our design process and our final solidworks designs of the disc. A future goal for us would be to run mechanical tests on a prototype using these two materials and our design.
Recommended Citation
Layton, Sara; Pai, Nikhil; and Rueckert, Michael, "Artificial Lumbar Spinal Disc Implant for Treating Degenerative Disc Disease" (2021). Bioengineering Senior Theses. 101.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/bioe_senior/101