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Abstract
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The superficial soft tissues are the most common anatomic injury site. For various reasons, this fact has been ignored in most statistical tabulations of injury frequency by anatomic location.
Soft tissue injuries are the most common anatomic category of accidental trauma. This area has received little statistical or experimental work due in part to ignorance of the epidemiologic factors and in part to lack of interest in injury protection. While superficial soft tissue injuries are rarely life threatening, they often constitute grave cosmetic defects with permanent psychic effects. Injuries to organs and organ systems within the three main body cavities are often life threatening. These organs may share many similar properties with these superficial tissues and lend themselves to similar modes of analysis. With full knowledge of the widespread occurrence of soft tissue injuries, increased studies of their properties is mandatory.
Evident from a review of the literature is the lack of information usable by those engaged in vehicular accident research. Work accomplished to date, with few exceptions, has not treated the response of soft tissue to loading conditions typically seen in automotive crash environments.
Since the viscoelastic characteristics of soft tissue dominate its response, further high strain rate experimentation is required. Departing from the physiologically oriented tensile tests, further studies on the compressive loading aspects of overlying soft tissue would provide needed information on the force attenuating and energy absorbing characteristics of skin and subcutaneous tissue. Also, how these parameters vary with respect to regional differences in body tissue (e.g. abdomen vs. scalp) is not understood.
Post-mortem tissue deterioration and its attendant effects on mechanical properties has received little attention. Mechanical properties and the physical basis of failure mechanisms of isolated organs (lung, liver, spleen, etc.) are virtually unknown.
Much further investigation is needed before a biomechanical understanding of how the human body responds to an impact environment is reached. |