TBI Med/Legal: Biomechanics in Car Crashes

Study Notes

Acceleration/deceleration significantly influences brain injury, beyond direct impacts.
Main causes of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): road traffic accidents, sports, falls, and assaults.
Coup and contracoup injuries arise from frontal and back impacts, leading to concussion symptoms.
Vehicle impact considerations: intensity, direction, and duration are critical.
Change in velocity, velocity angle, and impact angle must be evaluated.
Mild TBI is prevalent; can be assessed radiologically despite often being unnoticed.

Linear acceleration: results from the skull moving forward and backward.
Angular acceleration: recent studies highlight brain rotation as a significant injury factor, more than linear movement.

Head Injury Criterion (HIC) and Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) are commonly accepted measures.
Gadd Severity Index also utilized for TBI assessment.
Common assessment methods include calculating acceleration experienced through physical testing or research analysis.

Advanced vehicle data (e.g., from TESLA black boxes) aids understanding of velocity changes, acceleration, and impact angles.
Such data is essential for accurate accident reconstruction and analysis.

Reliability measures consistency; validity assesses accuracy of findings.
Many TBI studies may lack external validity due to limited participant demographics (e.g., predominately high-end male athletes).
Peer-reviewed research may not always apply universally outside studied contexts.

The "laziness question" may imply a challenge in rigorous methodologies for TBI studies.
Case studies (e.g., MVC) illustrate real-world applications of biomechanical principles in assessing TBI.