Citation

Nightingale RW, McElhaney JH, Camacho DL, Kleinberger M, Winkelstein BA, Myers BS. Proc. Stapp Car Crash Conf. 1997; 41: 451-471.

Affiliation

Duke Univ, Durham, NC, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Society of Automotive Engineers SAE)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The dynamics of head and cervical spine impact to determine the effects of head inertia and impact surface on injury risk are explored. Head impact experiments were performed using unembalmed head and neck specimens from 22 cadavers. The experiments demonstrated that in the absence of head pocketing, the head mass can provide sufficient constraint to cause cervical spine injury. The buckling modes illustrate the kinematic complexity of cervical spine dynamics and may explain why injuries can occur at different vertebral levels and with widely varying mechanism in compressive head impacts. Highly deformable padded contact surfaces should be employed carefully in environments where there is the risk for cervical spine injury.

Language: en