Citation

Zhou Z, Li X, Kleiven S. J. Neurotrauma 2019; 36(13): 2099-2108.

Affiliation

Division of Neuronic Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Huddinge, Sweden ; sveink@kth.se.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2018.6143

PMID

30717617

Abstract

Acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) due to bridging vein (BV) rupture is a frequent and lethal head injury, especially in the elderly. Brain atrophy has been hypothesized to be a primary pathogenesis associated with the increased risk of ASDH in the elderly. Though decades of biomechanical endeavours have been made to elucidate the potential mechanisms, a thorough explanation for this hypothesis appears lacking. Thus, a recently improved finite element head model, in which the brain-skull interface was modelled using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) approach with special treatment of the cerebrospinal fluid as arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian fluid formulation, is used to partially address this understanding gap. Models with various degrees of atrophied brains and thereby different subarachnoid thicknesses are generated and subsequently exposed to experimentally determined loadings known to cause ASDH or not. The results show significant increases in the cortical relative motion and BV strain in the atrophied brain, which consequently exacerbates the ASDH risk in the elderly.

RESULTS of this study are suggested to be considered while developing age-adapted protecting strategies for the elderly in the future.

Language: en

Keywords

AGE; FINITE ELEMENT MODELS; MODELS OF INJURY; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY