The 2004 World Health Day is dedicated to the theme of road safety by the World Health Organization (WHO) due mostly to the enormous socio economic costs attributed to trafik accidents. More than 140,000 people are injured, 3,000 killed, and 15,000 disabled for life everyday on the world's roads. The field of trauma biomechanics, or injury biomechanics, uses the principles of mechanics to study the response and tolerance level of biological tissues under extreme loading conditions. Through an understanding of mechanical factors that influence the function and structure of human tissues, countermeasures can be developed to alleviate or even eliminate such injuries. This book, Trauma-Biomechanics, surveys a wide variety of topics in injury biomechanics including anatomy, injury c1assification, injury mechanism, and injury criteria. It is the first collection I am aware of that lists regional injury reference values, or injury criterion, either currently in use or proposed by both U. S. and European communities. Although the book is meant to be an introduction for medical doctors and engineers who are beginners in the field of injury biomechanics, sufficient references are provided for those who wish to conduct further research, and even established researchers will find it useful as a reference for finding the biomechanical background of each proposed injury mechanism and injury criterion.

This book provides a state-of-the-art look at the applied biomechanics of accidental injury and prevention. The editors, Drs. Narayan Yoganandan, Alan M. Nahum and John W. Melvin are recognized international leaders and researchers in injury biomechanics, prevention and trauma medicine. They have assembled renowned researchers as authors for 29 chapters to cover individual aspects of human injury assessment and prevention. This third edition is thoroughly revised and expanded with new chapters in different fields. Topics covered address automotive, aviation, military and other environments. Field data collection; injury coding/scaling; injury epidemiology; mechanisms of injury; human tolerance to injury; simulations using experimental, complex computational models (finite element modeling) and statistical processes; anthropomorphic test device design, development and validation for crashworthiness applications in topics cited above; and current regulations are covered. Risk functions and injury criteria for various body regions are included. Adult and pediatric populations are addressed. The exhaustive list of references in many areas along with the latest developments is valuable to all those involved or intend to pursue this important topic on human injury biomechanics and prevention. The expanded edition will interest a variety of scholars and professionals including physicians, biomedical researchers in many disciplines, basic scientists, attorneys and jurists involved in accidental injury cases and governmental bodies. It is hoped that this book will foster multidisciplinary collaborations by medical and engineering researchers and academicians and practicing physicians for injury assessment and prevention and stimulate more applied research, education and training in the field of accidental-injury causation and prevention.

Injury is a leading cause of death, hospitalisation and disability world-wide. The World Health Organization predicts that unintentional injuries arising from road traffic incidents will rise to take third place in the rank order of international disease burden by the year 2030. Although these statistics and the associated economic costs are staggering, the effect of unintentional injury and death from trauma is more apparent, and more disturbing, when seen personally. By a young age, nearly everyone in the world, regardless of region, wealth or education, has had a relative or someone that they know killed or disabled in an "accident". The quality of life and financial effects on the injured person and their families and friends are plainly evident and clearly devastating. Many unintentional injuries are in reality not accidents; they could be prevented with changes in policy, education, or through improved safety devices. Arrayed against these preventable injuries, a diverse group of injury prevention researchers and practitioners work to decrease the incidence of unintentional injury. In trauma biomechanics, the principles of mechanics are used to understand how injuries happen at the level of the bones, joints, organs and tissues of the body. This knowledge is central in the development, characterization and improvement of safety devices such as helmets and seat belts and in the safe design of vehicles and equipment used for transportation, occupation and recreation.

For the 4th edition of Trauma Biomechanics all existing chapters referring to traffic and sports have been revised and updated. New scientific knowledge and changes in legal defaults (such as norms and standards of crash tests) have been integrated. Additionally one chapter has been added where biomechanical aspects of injuries affected by high energies are communicated in a new way. The mechanical basics for ballistics and explosions are described and the respective impacts on human bodies are discussed. The new edition with the additional chapter therefore is addressed to a broader audience than the previous one.

This edition presents the basic mechanics of injury, function of the musculoskeletal system and the effects of injury on connective tissue which often tends to be involved in the injury process.

Biomechanics is often overlooked when dealing with orthopedic injuries, whether regarding prevention or treatment, and practicing surgeons and surgeons-in-training may feel overwhelmed when referring to a book with a more complicated basic science approach. In order to make the subject clinically relevant to orthopedic trauma surgery, this unique text presents numerous clinical case examples to demonstrate clearly and effectively the principles biomechanics of injury, fixation and fracture healing. Divided into five sections, the opening chapters cover the essentials of stress and strain relevant to bone and joints and how this relates to fractures and their healing, complete with illustrative case material. This case-based approach is carried throughout the book, with part two discussing biomechanical principles of external fixation for diaphyseal and periarticular fractures, limb lengthening and deformity correction. Tension band wiring for both olecranon and patella fractures are covered in part three, and both locking and nonlocking plates are illustrated in part four. The final section describes biomechanical principles of intramedullary nails for a variety of fractures and nonunions, as well as arthrodesis and lengthening. Generous radiological images and intraoperative photos provide a helpful visual enhancement for the clinical material. Making the sometimes esoteric topic of biomechanics more clinically relevant to the practicing clinician, Essential Biomechanics for Orthopedic Trauma will be an excellent resource not only for orthopedic surgeons, sports medicine specialists and trauma surgeons, but also medical and biomedical engineering students and residents.

Military Injury Biomechanics: The Cause and Prevention of Impact Injuries is a reference manual where information and data from a large number of sources, focussing on injuries related to military events, has been critically reviewed and discussed. The book covers the cause and prevention of impact injuries to all the major body regions, while topics such as the historical background of military impact biomechanics, the history and use of anthropomorphic test devices for military applications and the medical management of injuries are also discussed. An international team of experts have been brought together to examine and review the topics. The book is intended for researchers, postgraduate students and others working or studying defence and impact injuries.