Conception et évaluation d'une orthèse cervico-thoracique

Abstract

Spinal injuries are frequent and cause severe consequences on the physical integrity of victims. When orthopedic surgeon cannot perform surgery or when post-surgical immobilization is necessary, a cervico-thoracic orthosis is prescribed to the patient. Currently, the most commonly used cervico-thoracic orthoses help protect and partially stabilize the spine injured between C1 and T5. The design of these braces is not optimal since their use cause complications for both patients and practitioners having to install them (Webber-Jones, Thomas et Bordeaux, 2002). The main objective of this project is to improve cervical and thoracic spinal injuries brace treatment by developing a cervico-thoracic orthosis using the quality function deployment method to overcome various shortcomings of existing devices. To meet the objectives, a model of cervico-thoracic orthosis was designed, fabricated and evaluated using biomechanical studies. The main results show that the developed cervico-thoracic orthosis seems to meet the needs of customers. We can conclude that the pressure induced by the prototype is comparable or lower than those generated by the other braces tested. Moreover, in a kinematic point of view, the spinal immobilization provided by the prototype is comparable or better than the one provided by other tested devices. The results also illustrate that the new orthosis is equally or more comfortable than other devices. This project has contributed to the advance of knowledge in the orthopedic field, especially relative to spinal injury treatment using cervico-thoracic orthoses. In the long term, victims of spinal injuries will benefit from more efficient orthoses helping to decrease the patient rehabilitation time and making the treatment process more reliable for practitioners.

Date	11 Feb 2015
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Yvan Petit (Supervisor) & Jean Marc Mac-Thiong (Co-supervisor)