Citation

Ryan GA, McLean AJ, Vilenius ATS, Kloeden CN, Simpson DA, Blumbergs PC. Proc. IRCOBI 1989; 18: 27-38.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

At-the-scene studies of road traffic accidents have been conducted by the Road Accident Research Unit, and its predecessor, at the University of Adelaide since 1963. These studies confirmed the importance of impacts to the head, even in an environment of compulsory helmet wearing by motorcyclists and belt use by vehicle occupants. Since 1981 the National Health and Medical Research Council has provided relatively long-term support for the work of the Road Accident Research Unit. This has made it feasible to conduct a major study of the mechanisms of injury to the brain in actual road crashes. The study, reported in this paper, involves an attempt to relate the nature and severity of the impact to the head to the nature and severity of the resulting injury to the brain in fatal cases. As such, it complements other approaches to the study of brain injury mechanisms. Experimental studies have provided the basis of our understanding of the mechanisms of injury to the brain due to blunt impact. They have the great advantage which comes from being able to specify the nature and severity of the impact to the head, or at least measure the resulting acceleration. However they also have the limitations inherent in the need to extrapolate from the cadaver, or the animal surrogate, to the living human. Experimental studies using human volunteers, including professional boxers, have no bio-fidelity limitations but they are unlikely to provide information on impacts which cause injury. Observational studies, of the type reported here, are well-suited to the description of the nature and severity of the injuries to the brain but reconstruction of the nature and severity of the impact is difficult and often of doubtful validity. This paper describes how such difficulties have been overcome.