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A Test Bed to Examine Helmet Fit and Retention and Biomechanical Measures of Head and Neck Injury in Simulated Impact
Published on: September 21, 2017
Lateral neck injury assessments in side impact using post mortem human subject tests
Narayan Yoganandan1, John Humm, Frank A Pintar
1Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI.
Summary
Researchers developed a new method to test neck injury thresholds for lateral bending. Post mortem human subjects tolerated 75 Nm of coronal moment, establishing a potential injury reference value for this loading type.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Injury Biomechanics
- Automotive Safety
Background:
- Current neck injury criteria lack thresholds for lateral bending, relying on scaled data from piglets and child dummies, and adult cadaver tolerances for axial loading.
- Existing criteria do not address lateral bending moments or other forces/moments, highlighting a significant gap in understanding head-neck complex injury mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a testing methodology for determining the lateral bending moment injury threshold in the human neck.
- To establish an initial injury reference value for coronal loading to the head-neck complex.
Main Methods:
- Utilized post mortem human subjects (PMHS), including whole bodies and isolated head-neck complexes with intact musculature.
- Developed a custom apparatus to induce lateral bending motion in isolated head-neck complexes fixed at T1.
- Measured head kinematics using accelerometers and calculated neck loads at the occipital condyles using specimen-specific physical properties and equations of equilibrium.
Main Results:
- Twenty-four tests were conducted, and no specimens sustained injuries detectable by palpation, X-ray, CT, or autopsy.
- PMHS head-neck complexes demonstrated tolerance to 75 Nm of coronal moment under low axial load without failure.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully developed a methodology for assessing lateral neck injury thresholds.
- A 75 Nm coronal moment tolerance level is proposed as an initial estimate for the injury reference value under lateral loading to the human head-neck complex.
