Prediction of neck injury risk based on the analysis of localized cervical vertebral motion of human volunteers during low-speed rear impacts

Ono, Koshiro; Ejima, Susumu; Suzuki, Youhei; Kaneoka, Koji; Fukushima, Makoto; Ujihashi, Sadayuki

Affiliations

³Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Tsukuba

Abstract and keywords

To clarify the mechanism that causes injury to the neck during rear-end collisions, the neck behavior of volunteer test subjects was carefully analyzed. As a result, stretch propagation was found to occur in soft tissue such as facet joint capsules, intervertebral discs and ligaments. The effects of gender and muscle condition on cervical vertebral motion were also revealed, and their respective roles in cervical injury risk were considered. Furthermore, the relation between the state of discomfort of volunteers after the experiments and the strain of intervertebral disc and facet joints indicated that it might be possible to estimate the risk of neck injury occurrence.

Keywords: Injury Criteria, Muscle, Gender, Neck, Volunteers, Whiplash

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