Battling back pain with spinal research

Back pain is Britain’s leading cause of time off work, with an estimated eight out of 10 people suffering at some point in their lives.

The University of Leeds is heading a £1.1 million project that will lead to groundbreaking new treatments for chronic back disorders, by developing advanced computer models of the spine.

“It might seem far-fetched, but with the aid of computer modelling, we hope that minimallyinvasive surgery for back pain will become a reality by 2020,” said Dr Ruth Wilcox (School of Mechanical Engineering), who is leading the research. This could mean injecting nucleus gels to restore the shape of spinal discs, for example, or repairing fractures with bioactive bone cements.

While it is now commonplace for hospitals to perform hip and knee joint surgery with a high rate of success, spinal surgery for conditions such as degenerative disc disease is still in its infancy.

“Until recently the best doctors could do was to remove a damaged disc and fuse the adjacent bones together, which is far from ideal,” explained Dr Wilcox. “In the future, the aim is to preserve as much of the original tissue as possible, while also encouraging the body to grow new tissue and restore the spine’s natural function. More advanced computer models will help us to design these new treatments far more rapidly.”

However, she points out that such novel medical techniques could do patients more harm than good without exhaustive preclinical testing.

“There are many different causes of back pain, and every person’s spinal structure is unique, so we can’t afford to make any assumptions,” said Dr Wilcox. “To complicate matters further, bone is a living tissue that alters its structure over time in response to natural ageing, injury, obesity, lifestyle and disease.”

The human spine is composed of 24 vertebrae supported by muscles and ligaments, which allow you to bend and twist. Between each vertebra is a gel-filled disc that prevents the bones rubbing against each other.

To help generate a wide range of computer models, CT scans will be taken of spinal remains donated to the University, and those held in the collections of several major museums in Europe.

Also involved in the EPSRC-funded research are Dr Jean Aaron (Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology), who is a world expert in bone histology, and Dr Amalia Aggeli (School of Chemistry), who specialises in self-assembling biomaterials.

External partners include Dr Kate Robson Brown from the University of Bristol, disc tissue experts at the University of Oxford, medical device company Synthes Inc, and software developers Simpleware Ltd.

Photo: Dr Ruth Wilcox and Dr Jean Aaron are using advanced computer modelling to develop future treatments for spinal disorders