A minimally disruptive technique for measuring intervertebral disc pressure in vitro: application to the cervical spine.

A novel technique to measure in vitro disc pressures in human cervical spine specimens was developed. A miniature pressure transducer was used and an insertion technique was designed to minimise artefacts due to insertion. The technique was used to measure the intradiscal pressure in cervical spines loaded in pure axial compression. The resulting pressure varied linearly with the applied compressive force with coefficients of determination (r(2)) greater than 0.99 for each of the four specimens. Peak pressures between 2.4 and 3.5MPa were recorded under 800N of compression.