Expansion and evaluation of data characterizing the structural behavior of the pediatric abdomen

Lamp, John F.<sup>1</sup>; Salzar, Robert<sup>1</sup>; Kerrigan, Jason<sup>1</sup>; Parent, Daniel<sup>1</sup>; Lopez-Valdez, Francisco<sup>1</sup>; Lau, Sabrina<sup>1</sup>; Lessley, David<sup>1</sup>; Kent, Richard<sup>1</sup>; Luck, Jason<sup>2</sup>; Loyd, Andre<sup>2</sup>; Bass, Cameron<sup>2</sup>

Despite the importance of abdominal injuries in children involved in motor vehicle collisions, only two papers have reported experimental data quantifying the pediatric abdominal response to belt loading. One developed and characterized a porcine model of the pediatric abdomen and the other presented a series of tests performed on a single pediatric (7-year-old female) post-mortem human subject (PMHS) and used the data to evaluate the efficacy of the porcine model. The current paper presents the results from an additional pediatric (6-year-old female) PMHS test series and an expanded evaluation of the porcine model using the combined PMHS data. The two PMHS exhibited remarkably similar abdominal stiffness, both by level (upper and lower) and by rate (quasi-static and ~2 m/s dynamic). Both PMHS and swine exhibited the same stiffness trend by abdominal level (lower stiffer than upper: 3444 N reaction force at 30.5 mm of displacement compared to 1756 N in the 6-yearold dynamic tests). The magnitude of lower abdomen stiffness was slightly less in the swine than in the PMHS (the average dynamic PMHS response was 1086 N greater than the porcine envelopes at 30.5 mm displacement) while the upper abdomen PMHS responses fit within the porcine response envelope.

Year

Entry

1996

Chamouard F, Tarrière C, Baudrit P. Protection of children on board vehicles: influence of pelvis design and thigh and abdomen stiffness on the submarining risk for dummies installed on a booster. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.1063-1075.

1993

Tso EL, Beaver BL, Haller JA Jr. Abdominal injuries in restrained pediatric passengers. J Pediatr Surg. 1993;28(7):915-919.

2001

Trosseille X, Cassan F, Schrooten M. Child restraint system for children in cars: CREST results. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1976

Kallieris D, Barz J, Schmidt G, Heess G, Mattern R. Comparison between child cadavers and child dummy by using child restraint systems in simulated collisions. In: Proceedings of the 20th Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 18-20, 1976; Dearborn, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:513-542. SAE 760815.

1997

Trosseille X, Chamouard F, Tarrière C. Abdominal injury risk to children and its prevention. In: Proceedings of the 1997 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 24-26, 1997; Hannover, Germany.153-163.