Using Biomechanical Engineering to Prevent Spinal Cord Injuries

脊髓损伤（SCI）是一种毁灭性的事件，通常会使受害者在受伤水平以下部分或完全瘫痪。这些伤害最常发生在20多岁的健康年轻人身上，但脆弱的儿童和老年人也以惊人的速度遭受这些伤害及其破坏性后果。 该研究计划的长期目标是通过实验确定脊柱（脊柱的骨，椎间盘和韧带）和脊髓水平的脊髓损伤机制，特别是在脊髓和脊柱的界面。这些SCI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已在健康成人中进行了广泛研究，因此目前对该人群中的脊柱损伤机制了解最多。 然而，这项工作主要是使用尸体脊柱完成的，很少有工作涉及肌肉和/或脊髓组织。如果能够确定肌肉组织、脊柱姿势、脊柱退化（老年人）和脊柱发育（儿童）的影响，那么将导致损伤预防和治疗的许多进展。例如，它将允许开发改进的针对特定年龄的损伤预防设备，改进的临床筛查技术，改进的游乐场，老年人和汽车环境，改进的调理练习和改进的针对实际年龄相关的脊髓损伤的SCI治疗。这个应用程序是第二次更新我原来的NSERC发现补助金在这个主题上，是从2003年开始资助五年，然后在2009年更新五年。作为UBC的六名申请者之一，我被邀请提前重新申请，以便被考虑加入探索加速器补充计划。 我们已经使用原始赠款建立正在进行的项目，以开发一种改进的运动和运输头盔，以防止在头部第一次撞击时脊髓损伤，并用于重点防止脆弱的老年人和儿童人群中这些损伤的项目。

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.