Variational model of scoliosis

Abstract

Scoliosis, being one of the most widespread spinal diseases among children, has been studied extensively throughout the history of medicine, yet there is no clear understanding of its initiating factors and the mechanogenesis of the monomorphic three-dimensional deformation due to its polyetiological nature. We present a novel mathematical model of the process of emergence of the three-dimensional deformation of the human spine based on variational principles. Typical scoliosis geometry is assumed to be described as minimal curves of a particular energy functional, which are shown to closely resemble actual scoliosis. We investigate the numerical properties of the first stage of scoliosis, which is shown to have the highest influence on the development of the disease.

Keywords

• spine
• model
• variational method