Spinal ligament transducer based on a hall effect sensor

A spinal ligament transducer (SLT) was developed to measure in situ spinal ligament elongation during the simulation of whiplash trauma with a cadaverie spine specimen. The SLT was designed to be affixed to two K-wires drilled into the bone at the approximate points of ligament origin and insertion. The transducer is low cost and is capable of measuring the linear distance between the K-wires in the range 4–12 mm with the root mean square (RMS) accuracy of 0.025 mm.