Patient-Specific Modeling for Pediatric Head Injury Biomechanics Report for 1 Sep 04-31 Aug 05

摘要

Pediatric traumatic head injury is the leading cause of death, disability, and health care costs in the United States, with falls and child abuse the leading cause of head injury in infants. However, head injury biomechanics in pediatric patients are poorly understood from a biomechanical perspective. These injuries are intrinsically linked to geometries and material properties of the brain and skull. This project used patient-specific finite element models, reconstructed from patient computer tomography scans, to study impact responses and injury mechanisms in pediatric patients. The long-term objective of this project is to use patient-specific finite element models to investigate the brain injury of each specific pediatric patient at all ages. A family of patient-specific finite element models will be built for the entire pediatric population as a function of age. Patient-specific head injury studies will not only help clinicians understand how injuries occur in a patient under a specific injury scenario, but also assist in the development and evaluation of devices intended for safety of this population. In this pilot study, seven patients (three to eight months of age) were selected, and patient-specific finite element models were reconstructed from computer tomography scans by using MIMICS (Materialise Inc, Ann Arbor, MI) software. Each model was exercised under a known impact scenario obtained from the clinical history. Results from patient-specific finite element models were compared with brain injuries found on computer tomography scans in order to explore tissue-level head injury criteria. The models were then applied with same traumatic loading to study the effect of geometric difference and site of impact on the biomechanical outcomes.