Using Biomechanical Engineering to Prevent Spinal Cord Injuries

脊髓损伤(SCI)是一种破坏性的事件，通常会使受害者在损伤水平以下部分或完全瘫痪。这些伤害大多发生在20多岁的健康年轻男性身上，但脆弱的儿童和老年人口也以惊人的速度遭受这些伤害及其破坏性后果。 这一研究计划的长期目标是在脊柱(脊柱的骨、盘和韧带)和脊髓水平，特别是在脊髓和脊柱的交界处，从实验上确定脊髓损伤的机制。这些脊髓损伤机制在所有年龄段都知之甚少，尽管脊柱水平的损伤机制在健康成年人中已经得到了广泛的研究，因此，目前对这一人群的脊柱损伤机制了解最多。 然而，这项工作主要是使用身体脊柱完成的，很少有工作结合肌肉和/或脊髓组织。如果能够确定肌肉结构、脊柱姿势、脊柱退行性变(老年人)和脊柱发育(儿童)的影响，那么在损伤预防和治疗方面将取得许多进展。例如，它将允许开发改进的特定年龄损伤预防设备，改进临床筛查技术，改善操场、老年和汽车环境，改进适应练习，并改进针对实际年龄相关脊髓损伤的脊髓损伤治疗。这份申请是我最初关于这一主题的NSERC发现补助金的第二次续签，这笔资金从2003年开始资助了五年，然后在2009年续签了五年。我被邀请提前重新申请，作为来自UBC的六名申请者之一，以便被考虑参加发现加速器补充计划。我们利用最初的赠款建立了正在进行的项目，以开发改进的运动和运输头盔，以防止在头部第一撞击期间脊髓受伤，并用于重点预防脆弱的老年和儿科人群中的这些伤害的项目。

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) are devastating events that usually leave victims partially or completely paralyzed below the level of the injury. These injuries happen most often to healthy young men in their 20s but the vulnerable child and elderly populations also suffer these injuries, and their devastating consequences, at an alarming rate. The long-term objectives of this research program are to experimentally determine the mechanisms of spinal cord injury at the level of the spinal column (bones, discs and ligaments of the spine) and spinal cord and especially at the interface of the cord and column. These SCI injury mechanisms are poorly understood at all ages although the injury mechanisms at the level of the spinal column has been extensively studied in healthy adults and for this reason column injury mechanisms in this population are the best understood presently. However, this work has primarily been done using cadaveric spinal columns and little work has been done incorporating either muscles and/or Spinal Cord tissue. If the effect of musculature, spinal posture, spinal column degeneration (in the elderly) and spinal column development (in children) could be determined then many advances in injury prevention and treatment would result. For instance it would allow the development of improved age-specific injury prevention devices, improved clinical screening techniques, improved playground, geriatric and automotive environments, improved conditioning exercises and improved treatments for SCI that are tailored to the actual age-related cord injuries. This application is the second renewal of my original NSERC Discovery Grant on this topic that was funded for five years starting in 2003 then renewed for five years in 2009. I was invited to reapply early, as one of six applicants from UBC, in order to be considered for the Discovery Accelerator Supplement. We have used the original grants to establish ongoing projects to develop an improved sports and transportation helmet to prevent spinal cord injuries during head first impact and for projects focused on preventing these injuries in the vulnerable geriatric and pediatric populations.