Mechanical Characterization of Cervical Spinal Cord Tissue Under Varied Environmental Conditions

ABSTRACT Identifying material parameters for cervical spinal cord tissue requires an understanding of how testing protocols affect the measured response. We use ovine cervical spinal cord white matter to examine the effects of hydration, temperature, adhesive fixation and repeated loading. Specimens are loaded by a multistep compression–tension ramp‐and‐hold sequence, and stress values are compared at defined strains. For hydration, sprayed specimens are 2.5 to 4.4 times stiffer than submerged specimens. For temperature, heating glued submerged specimens to increases the compressive stress from at room temperature to . For adhesive dosage, raising the dosage from to and per plate changes the stress from to and , respectively. For repeated loading, stress increases from to in one specimen and from to in another over six trials. Together, these variations span roughly a 25‐fold change in measured stress. Based on these results, we recommend using the first trial of submerged tests at with adhesive per plate for parameter identification.