• Telvinderjit Singh, William Chase Harington Parr, Wen Jie Choy, Gideon Richard Budiono, Monish Maharaj, Xavier Mathis, Kevin Phan, William Robert Walsh, and Ralph Jasper Mobbs.
• NeuroSpine Surgery Research Group (NSURG), Prince of Wales Private Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; NeuroSpine Clinic, Department of Neurosurgery, Prince of Wales Private Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Surgical and Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: telvinder95@yahoo.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2020 Mar 1; 135: e321-e332.

BackgroundInformation on the three-dimensional (3D) shape of vertebral end plates is lacking. Previous studies have analyzed two-dimensional shape; however, 3D data are important because they may help improve our understanding of how differences in shape are related to age, gender, race, size, and other parameters, which may subsequently help improve device design for interbody prosthesis.ObjectiveTo study the 3D shape of lumbar vertebral end plates from normal adult lumbar spines and correlate them with age, gender, spinal/end plate level, end plate surface area, concave depth, and size.MethodsAn in vivo analysis was undertaken of lumbar vertebral end plate 3D shape. A total of 136 patients' computed tomography scans were used to create 3D models of the lumbar spine for each patient, which were subsequently analyzed.ResultsThe shape of the superior end plates is different compared with inferior end plates. Across the lumbar spine (L1-S1), the shape of inferior end plates is similar; however, the shape of the superior end plate varies between spinal levels significantly. There was no clear relationship between age and principal component (PC) shapes but there was a strong correlation between end plate concave depth and end plate PC shape scores.ConclusionsFuture interbody (disc replacement and fusion) device designs could use the findings that inferior end plate shape is similar throughout the length of the lumbar spine, whereas superior end plate shape changes. Further, future implants could be level-specific because the present study shows that end plate shape varies through the length of the lumbar spine.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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