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Behind Armor Blunt Trauma: Liver Injuries Using a Live Animal Model
Narayan Yoganandan1, Alok Shah1, Jared Koser1
1Department of Neurosurgery and Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Military Medicine
|August 20, 2024
Summary
This study used swine models to assess blunt trauma behind body armor, finding that controlled impacts can cause liver injuries. Further research is needed to develop regional injury criteria for better protection.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Trauma Research
- Ballistics
Background:
- The current behind armor blunt trauma (BABB) displacement limit, established in the 1970s for soft body armor, is applied to both soft and hard armor evaluations.
- This uniform standard is inadequate due to the heterogeneous nature of thoraco-abdominal contents, varying skeletal coverage, and diverse functional requirements.
- A need exists to determine regional responses of different thoraco-abdominal organs to refine human tolerance and improve the BABB standard.
Purpose of the Study:
- To report on the methods, procedures, and data collected from live swine subjected to controlled impacts simulating ballistic events.
- To evaluate the feasibility of using a swine model for studying behind armor blunt trauma, specifically focusing on liver impacts.
- To gather biomechanical data for developing improved injury criteria for body armor.
Main Methods:
- Live swine underwent anesthesia and monitoring, with pressure transducers in the lungs and aorta.
- An indenter, simulating backface deformation from military ballistics, delivered impact loading to the liver region.
- Biomechanical variables including energy, velocity, deflection, viscous criterion, force, and impulse were recorded.
Main Results:
- Peak biomechanical values ranged from 897–5,808 g (acceleration), 21–59 m/s (velocity), 1.96–8.87 cm (deflection), 2.3–13.1 kN (force), 1.1–7.1 Ns (impulse), and 58–387 J (energy).
- The peak viscous criterion ranged from 0.8 to 5.8 m/s.
- Three out of seven swine sustained liver lacerations; all animals survived the 6-hour observation period.
Conclusions:
- The experimental design successfully replicated liver injuries in live swine using controlled impacts, validating the model's utility.
- Biomechanical measures were collected as potential candidates for future injury criteria development.
- Further testing with this model is essential to develop injury risk curves and establish regional (liver) injury criteria for body armor.
