Preface

The field of biomechanics has been evolving from the times of ancient Greeks. Recent publications and research in biomechanics sky rocketed as the field of traditional biomechanics is creating new opportunities in diagnostics, therapy, rehabilitation, motion preservation, kinesiology, total joint replacement, biomechanics of living systems at small scale, and other areas.

Biomechanics now encompasses a range of fields. The book on Injury and Skeletal Biomechanics is a broad topic and may provide a platform for newer texts and editions as the research evolves and new results are obtained. In the current form, the book covers four areas: 1) Motion Preservation, which will be useful in designing rehabilitation and training segments, 2) Musculoskeletal and Injury Biomechanics, which includes spine and brain, their behavior under the actions of force, motion, strain, and modeling them analytically and experimentally, 3) Gait-Behavior, is another area which is being developed to learn more on kinesiology and movements of the body, and 4) Quantitative Biomechanics, a somewhat new area that uses imaging and analytical computational tools.

Therefore, the book presents information in four sections, in a concise format. Based on these sections, new courses may be developed at graduate level or some of the concepts used to teach undergraduate students in biomedical engineering. Since the book will be available under open access model, its use will be free to students, and this topic may be introduced as a new course, if desired. The four sections presented in this book will continue to challenge both the researchers and students in the future and therefore, create new knowledge.

> **Tarun Goswami**  Spine Research Group Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering Department Wright State University USA

**Section 1** 

**Motion Preservation** 

**Motion Preservation** 

**Chapter 1** 

© 2012 Jelen et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

**The Women's Pelvic Floor Biomechanics** 

The function of the pelvic floor is fundamentally influenced by the behaviour of several organs and the organ-linked processes. The aim of this work is to study the properties and changes of the women's pelvic floor. The motive arises from the fact that pelvic floor dysfunctions badly influence the quality of life. The loss of the proper function in the pelvic floor results in a wide range of problems from asymptomatic and anatomic defects to vaginal eversion. All the aforementioned problems are frequently followed by urinating and

As the initial symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunctions are very weak, the absence of seeking medical assistance among women is significant at the beginning. However, the fact is that an early and explicit diagnosis is crucial. For example, the prevalence of uterovaginal prolapse is about 50 % among delivering women, but only one half of them search for medical care. These

The basis and origins of pelvic floor dysfunctions have certainly a multifactorial character. The elementary factor is intra-abdominal pressure dynamics and it is usually highlighted by obesity, chronic constipation, physically hard work, coughs and mainly pregnancy, vaginal delivery respectively. The topical application of mechanical stress affects the tissue essentially and can make progress towards the failure of tissue continuity. The only solution is usually surgery that tries to fix found problems, revive functional supports of organs and restore their physiological features. From this point of view, the most important area for research on the pelvic floor is the interaction between individual organs (endopelvic fascia

In pregnancy, a large number of changes are observed in the female body. The main reason for the changes is to cope with the growing foetus's demands and also to protect the

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Karel Jelen, František Lopot, Daniel Hadraba,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

defecating difficulties together with sexual dysfunctions.

mainly) and rheological description of these interactions.

**2. Context and paper targets** 

types of health problems occur more frequently as the population is aging.

Hynek Herman and Martina Lopotova

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/47773

**1. Introduction** 
