Title: Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Orthopaedics and Department of Paediatrics, University of
1Departments of Mechanical Engineering and
Orthopaedics and Department of Paediatrics,
University of British Columbia, BC Injury
Research and Prevention Unit, Vancouver, BC
INJURY BIOMECHANICS AS A MEANS TO PREVENT
INJURIES IN CANADA
Peter A. Cripton and Shelina Babul
- Motivation Injuries to the spinal cord (Figure
3) result in loss of function below the level of
the injury with catastrophic consequences from
quality of life, health care utilization, and
financial perspectives. - Method Drop Tower Experiments (Figure 4)
- Conclusion Prevention of Spinal Cord Injuries
- This technique will be used to evaluate and
develop novel devices to prevent spinal injuries
in automotive and sports environments.
INTRODUCTION Injury Biomechanics is centrally
involved in understanding the mechanisms of human
injury. This information is used to prevent
injuries or advance medical treatments. Examples
of injury prevention devices that biomechanical
engineers have been centrally involved in include
the development and advancement of seat belts,
airbags and helmets.
- Objectives
- To outline research underway at the Injury
Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of
British Columbia and illustrate the importance of
a collaborative relationship between
biomechanical engineers and provincial and
national injury prevention organizations such as
the British Columbia Injury Research and
Prevention Unit. -
Theme 3 Improving Child Restraint Performance 3
Figure 5 Six-year-old occupant simulation. The
yellow line indicates head motion. (Source
Partners for child passenger safety). This is a
common misuse when the shoulder belt doesnt fit
properly.
- Motivation Motor vehicle traffic is the leading
cause of death in BC for the ages 0 to 14 years.6
High rates of child restraint misuse have been
reported in BC7 (Figure 5). - Method Investigations of specific MVCs
- Engineering, epidemiological and medical
Investigations of BC injuries to children
associated with specific motor vehicle
collisions. - Conclusion Improving Child Restraint
Performance - This information will be used to educate the
public, guide policy decisions and to identify
performance improvements to child restraints that
can be accomplished through engineering redesign.
Figure 2 Corneal abrasion and penetration
summary graph This graph summarizes data made
available to the authors, Potts and Distler5 and
Duma and Crandall.4 Smaller and sharper objects
penetrate the globe at momentums that are several
magnitudes lower than those necessary with 10 mm
diameter rigid spheres.
Theme 1 Prevention of Eye Injuries 1
- Motivation Ocular injury tolerance data can aid
automotive design by recommending limits on the
allowable speed, mass, and shape of projectiles
associated with airbag deployment or vehicle
damage during motor vehicle collisions. - Method Literature search
- STAPP Car Crash Conference Proceedings and Pubmed
Medline
Theme 2 Prevention of Spinal Cord Injuries 2
- Results Eye Injury Tolerance
- Projectiles of various size, shape and mass
(Figure 1) - Corneal Injury tolerance data (Figure 2)
GENERAL CONCLUSION Injury prevention is a complex
multidisciplinary field. Many injury prevention
research topics require effective
interdisciplinary collaboration between
physicians, epidemiologists, engineers, and
others.
- References
- Boak J.C., Lau C., Bellezza A., Saari A., Cripton
P.A., Ocular Injury Tolerance to Projectile
Impacts During Motor Vehicle Collisions.
Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology. May 1-5, 2005, Fort Lauderdale,
FL, USA - Saari A, Morley P, Cripton PA, Spinal cord
deformation during burst fractures of the
cervical spine in the presence of physiologic
preload. Proceedings of the 2005 Summer
Bioengineering Conference of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, June 22-26, Vail, CO,
USA - Louman-Gardiner K, Mulpuri K, Perdios A, Tredwell
S, Cripton PA, Pediatric chance fractures and
associated neurological injury in British
Columbia recommendations for injury prevention,
Proceedings of the International Collaboration on
Repair Discoveries (ICORD) Annual Research
Meeting, October 17, 2005 - Duma SM, Crandall JR. J Trauma 200048786-9.
- Potts AM, Distler JA. American Journal of
Ophthalmology 1985100183-7. - Rajabali F et al. Unintentional injuries in BC
trends and patterns among children and youth
2005, BCIRPU Report - Christensen L, Reid L, Booster seat law in BC-at
what compromise? 2002 ICBC BCAA presentation -
Projectiles
Figure 1 Schematic of eye tolerance experiment.
- Conclusion Prevention of Eye Injuries
- Automotive manufacturers can use the assembled
data to optimize the design of airbags such that
projectiles produced during airbag deployments or
collisions do not injure occupants eyes.
Figure 4 - Drop tower used to induce burst
fracture injuries
Figure 3 - C-spine fractures occur at speeds
over 3m/s i.e. diving into shallow water or in
automotive rollovers.
Acknowledgements Financial support in the form
of research grants from GM Canada (PACE), and
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of Canada (NSERC), and the Rick Hansen Man in
Motion Fund, are gratefully acknowledged.
.
Contact Shelina Babul, PhD, Tel (604) 875-3682,
Fax (604) 875-3569, Email sbabul_at_cw.bc.ca
2- Injury Biomechanics is centrally involved in
understanding the mechanisms of human injury.
This information is used to prevent injuries or
advance medical treatments. Examples of injury
prevention devices that biomechanical engineers
have been centrally involved in include the
development and advancement of seat belts,
airbags and helmets. In the realm of injury
treatment biomechanical engineers have
contributed to novel treatments for spinal cord
injury by helping to improve the concordance
between the injuries suffered by human patients
and those used to develop new treatments in
rodent models. - The objective of this presentation will be to
outline research underway at the Injury
Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of
British Columbia. The important collaborative
relationship between biomechanical engineers and
provincial and national injury prevention
organizations such as the British Columbia Injury
Prevention Unit will be highlighted. - Theme 1 - Eye Injury Injury due to small
projectiles contacting the eye at high velocity
can be devastating because of potential loss of
vision. Ocular injury tolerance data can aid
automotive design by recommending limits on the
allowable speed, mass, or shape of projectiles
associated with airbag deployment or vehicle
damage during motor vehicle collisions. It was
determined that little quantitative information
is known about the tolerance for eye injury for
projectiles of the size, shape, or mass
characteristic of automobile collisions. In this
research, biomechanical engineers can design and
perform experiments to quantitatively determine
the tolerance of the eye to injury using
cadaveric eyes and simulated projectiles
propelled by an air cannon. - Theme 2 Spinal Cord Injury Spinal cord injury
is a devastating injury with enormous associated
societal and financial burdens. The objective of
this research is to quantitatively determine the
mechanical deformation that the spinal cord
undergoes during various kinds of common spinal
injuries such as diving injuries or injuries
associated with automotive rollovers. This is
done using cadaveric spinal segments and a sensor
placed in the spinal canal which can be used to
measure spinal cord deformation during spinal
injury. - Collaboration with physicians and epidemiologists
as well as researchers with other expertise is
essential in these fields as it provides a
quantitative understanding of the importance of
the research question in the Canadian context
(epidemiology) as well as an understanding of the
clinical presentation and treatment of affected
individuals.