Endplate fractures with subtle structural damage in impact loaded flexed ovine lumbar segments: a potential initiator of disc degeneration

Flexed ovine lumbar motion segments subjected to impact loading approximating a low energy traumatic fall, are more likely to fail via endplate fracture accompanied by more subtle structural damage in the disc and/or adjacent vertebra. Failure by disc herniation was less common. The subtle, co-occurring, multi-component failure modes add to our recognition of the complexity of these injuries, and the potential role they might play in the initiation and development of the degenerative cascade in the intervertebral disc.