Characteristics and prediction of cranial crush injuries in children.
This study documents four clinical cases of fatal crush injuries to children between 1.5 and 6 years of age with correlations between modeled stress and clinically observed fracture patterns. The clinical case fractures were concentrated in the basicranium, bridged the impact sites, and traversed the middle cranial fossa in the area of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis. The crushing forces from these cases were recreated on a simplified finite element model of a cranium by applying bilateral pressures to corresponding regions. Numerous trials were run to develop a representative pattern of principal stress directions. In all cases, the highest tensile stresses were located on the basicranium and corresponded to the observed fracture path(s). These results suggest that prefailure stress field diagrams may predict fracture propagation paths, although these will not be exact. Also, these analyses indicate that quasi-static bilateral loading of the cranium may lead to predictable fracture of the basicranium.
Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratories, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Timothy G
TG
Baumer
Marcus
M
Nashelsky
Carolyn V
CV
Hurst
Nicholas V
NV
Passalacqua
Todd W
TW
Fenton
Roger C
RC
Haut
D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D018460:Fractures, Comminuted / Q000473:pathology*; D005597:Fractures, Open / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D012887:Skull Fractures / Q000473:pathology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical