Mathematical Modeling of Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

This study revealed that body forces are the forms of stress present in the nerve cells or soft tissue cells that can lead to damage or injury when external forces act upon the spinal cord. The study showcased that spinal cord injuries have viscous and elastic characteristics in the body of the living organisms when the adjoining cells are damaged. The spinal cord injury was created by contusion at C3 level. The model solution depicts that location or displacement of the injury on the spinal cord determines the measure of the severity of the injury which may show tetraplegia or paraplegia on the affected area. The analytic solution explicates that the wall surrounding the injured spinal cord (matrix density) gives an exponential rise in the time taken for the injured wall to increase. The study elucidates that the body forces (stress) increase the location or displacement of the injured area in a linear shape. These results were ascertained by using MATLab to plot the graphs with the given parameter values in the discussion of results. Finally, the solution of this study illustrates that there are dead nerve cells in the injured part of the spinal cord due to stress.