State-of-the-art of finite element modelling of the human spine to study the impact of vibrations: a review

Exposure to vibration can be harmful to the spinal column, which can cause injury to the spine and related tissues by jolting and compressing the spinal column’s vertebrae. Long-term exposure to vibration can lead to problems with the spinal column, including stenosis, herniated discs, and degenerative disc disease (degeneration of the intervertebral discs). Vibration can exacerbate muscle strains, sprains, and pre-existing back problems. To date, experimental studies on vibrations have been limited to simple human dummies, which cannot determine its effects on exposed critical organs such as the human spine. However, with computational modelling, it is possible to not only study the effects of vibrations on the realistic spine geometry, but also allow the assignment of biofidelic material properties, loads and boundary conditions. This work aims to comprehensively review computational models studying the various segments of the spinal column and the effects of spinal vibrations. This study is anticipated to lead to a better understanding of the state-of-the-art spine modelling and computational complexities associated with spinal geometry development, material modelling, and finite-element modelling with vibrational loads, and also highlights the gaps and essential future research prospects.