Infant skull fracture risk for low height falls

Abstract Skull fractures are common injuries in young children, typically caused by accidental falls and child abuse. The paucity of detailed biomechanical data from real-world trauma in children has hampered development of biomechanical thresholds for skull fracture in infants. The objectives of this study were to identify biomechanical metrics to predict skull fracture, determine threshold values associated with fracture, and develop skull fracture risk curves for low-height falls in infants. To achieve these objectives, we utilized an integrated approach consisting of case evaluation, anthropomorphic reconstruction, and finite element simulation. Four biomechanical candidates for predicting skull fracture were identified (first principal stress, first principal strain, shear stress, and von Mises stress) and evaluated against well-witnessed falls in infants (0–6 months). Among the predictor candidates, first principal stress and strain correlated best with the occurrence of parietal skull fracture. The principal stress and strain thresholds associated with 50 and 95% probability of parietal skull fracture were 25.229 and 36.015 MPa and 0.0464 and 0.0699, respectively. Risk curves using these predictors determined that infant falls from 0.3 m had a low probability (0–54%) to result in parietal skull fracture, particularly with carpet impact (0–1%). Head-first falls from 0.9 m had a high probability of fracture (86–100%) for concrete impact and a moderate probability (34–81%) for carpet impact. Probabilities of fracture in 0.6 m falls were dependent on impact surface. Occipital impacts from 0.9 m onto the concrete also had the potential (27–90% probability) to generate parietal skull fracture. These data represent a multi-faceted biomechanical assessment of infant skull fracture risk and can assist in the differential diagnosis for head trauma in children..

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2018

Erschienen:

2018

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:133

Enthalten in:

International journal of legal medicine - 133(2018), 3 vom: 07. Sept., Seite 847-862

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Hajiaghamemar, Marzieh [VerfasserIn]
Lan, Ingrid S. [VerfasserIn]
Christian, Cindy W. [VerfasserIn]
Coats, Brittany [VerfasserIn]
Margulies, Susan S. [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [kostenfrei]

Themen:

Accidental falls
Anthropomorphic surrogate
Finite element modeling
Head impact
Injury risk curve
Pediatric traumatic brain injury

RVK:

RVK Klassifikation

Anmerkungen:

© The Author(s) 2018

doi:

10.1007/s00414-018-1918-1

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

OLC2105421687