Human Lumbar Spine Injury Risk in Dynamic Combined Compression and Flexion Loading

Anticipating changes to vehicle interiors with future automated driving systems, the automobile industry recently has focused attention on crash response in novel postures with increased seatback recline. Prior research found that this posture may result in greater risk of lumbar spine injury in the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of biomedical engineering 2023-06, Vol.51 (6), p.1216-1225
Main Authors: Tushak, Sophia K., Gepner, Bronislaw D., Forman, Jason L., Hallman, Jason J., Pipkorn, Bengt, Kerrigan, Jason R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents, Traffic
Automation
Automobile industry
Automobiles
Biochemistry
Biological and Medical Physics
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedical engineering
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Biomedicine
Biophysics
Classical Mechanics
Compression
Compression tests
Engineering
Failure
Force
Health risks
Humans
Injuries
Lumbar Vertebrae - physiology
Optimization
Original Article
Posture
Risk
Specimen geometry
Spinal Injuries
Spine (lumbar)
Statistical analysis
Survival
Survival analysis
Vertebrae
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Anticipating changes to vehicle interiors with future automated driving systems, the automobile industry recently has focused attention on crash response in novel postures with increased seatback recline. Prior research found that this posture may result in greater risk of lumbar spine injury in the event of a frontal crash. This study developed a lumbar spine injury risk function (IRF) that estimated injury risk as a function of simultaneously applied compression force and flexion moment. Force and moment failure data from 40 compression–flexion tests were utilized in a Weibull survival model, including appropriate data censoring. A mechanics-based injury metric was formulated, where lumbar spine compression force and flexion moment were normalized by specimen geometry. Subject age was incorporated as a covariate to further improve model fit. A weighting factor was included to adjust the influence of force and moment, and parameter optimization yielded a value of 0.11. Thus, the normalized compression force component had a greater effect on injury risk than the normalized flexion moment component. Additionally, as force was nominally increased, less moment was required to produce injury for a given age and specimen geometry. The resulting IRF may be utilized to improve occupant safety in the future.
ISSN:0090-6964
1573-9686
DOI:10.1007/s10439-022-03126-5