A comprehensive renal injury concept based on a validated finite element model of the human abdomen.
BACKGROUND
The identification of abdominal injury mechanisms, development of effective countermeasures, and refinement of clinical approach to injury treatment are greatly facilitated by the employment of numerical models that can predict injuries resulting from complicated soft tissue interactions during blunt abdominal impact.


METHODS
The present study introduces a detailed three-dimensional finite element model of the human abdomen that was developed specifically for the investigation of renal trauma. The model geometry and materials reflect the complex mechanical environment of the abdomen, and is validated against both published and novel experiments.


RESULTS
It is shown that use of the proposed model, in combination with appropriate mechanical organ injury criteria, provides a significant step toward a comprehensive renal injury concept. Specifically, the abdominal model offers the possibility to investigate injury likelihood and identify injury mechanisms over a broad range of impact loading scenarios.


CONCLUSIONS
A sophisticated numerical model of renal trauma has been developed that can be used to effectively predict renal injury outcome for lateral impact.
Snedeker
Jess G
JG
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, and Department of Surgery, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland. snedeker@biomed.ee.ethz.ch
Barnstuble
Brent B
BB
Iaizzo
Paul A
PA
Farshad
Mehdi
M
Niederer
Peter
P
Schmidlin
Franz R
FR
D034841:Abdominal Cavity / Q000503:physiopathology; D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000293:injuries*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*