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Hello,
I am a graduate student at the Colorado School of Mines and I am
studying neck injuries, specifically in football players. I am trying
to analyze what sort of forces are exerted on the spine via the head,
and what will determine a fracture in the spine. Obviously, if there
is a direct downward impact on the top of the head you are more likely
to suffer a fracture in the cervical spine than if the impact was
directed perpendicular to the face. I am trying to find data that
shows the amount of force that will cause a fracture in the spine from
axial impact. I found some data from an experiment that was done on
some University of North Carolina football players. They wore helmets
with accelerometers in them and they were able show how much force the
head sustained during both practices and games. Some of the players
had over 200 g's of force in their heads which is very large. This
data should be pretty helpful. I also found some information in the
Biomch-L archives from a post on December 6,2001 about neck injuries.
A reference was given about spinal injuries with vertical impact
(Sances et al. (1986) Spinal Injuries with
Vertical Impact, in Mechanisms of Head and Spine Trauma, Eds, Sances,
Thomas, Ewing, Larson, Unterharnscheidt, Aloray Publisher, pp.305-308
describes vertical (head-down) dropping of cadavers.) This article
looks like it would be very helpful, but I do not have access to it
(at least not free access) so I would like to request a copy of it if
at all possible. Lastly, I was wondering if there were some simulators
that would be useful to collect data from. I tried to find some free
spine simulators where you could apply a few loads the head/spine and
reover some data from it but was unsuccessful. I am wondering what
sort of programs are out there and whether or not they would be useful
to collect data from. Thank you so much for your time and response.
Sincerely,
Drew Ferren
I am a graduate student at the Colorado School of Mines and I am
studying neck injuries, specifically in football players. I am trying
to analyze what sort of forces are exerted on the spine via the head,
and what will determine a fracture in the spine. Obviously, if there
is a direct downward impact on the top of the head you are more likely
to suffer a fracture in the cervical spine than if the impact was
directed perpendicular to the face. I am trying to find data that
shows the amount of force that will cause a fracture in the spine from
axial impact. I found some data from an experiment that was done on
some University of North Carolina football players. They wore helmets
with accelerometers in them and they were able show how much force the
head sustained during both practices and games. Some of the players
had over 200 g's of force in their heads which is very large. This
data should be pretty helpful. I also found some information in the
Biomch-L archives from a post on December 6,2001 about neck injuries.
A reference was given about spinal injuries with vertical impact
(Sances et al. (1986) Spinal Injuries with
Vertical Impact, in Mechanisms of Head and Spine Trauma, Eds, Sances,
Thomas, Ewing, Larson, Unterharnscheidt, Aloray Publisher, pp.305-308
describes vertical (head-down) dropping of cadavers.) This article
looks like it would be very helpful, but I do not have access to it
(at least not free access) so I would like to request a copy of it if
at all possible. Lastly, I was wondering if there were some simulators
that would be useful to collect data from. I tried to find some free
spine simulators where you could apply a few loads the head/spine and
reover some data from it but was unsuccessful. I am wondering what
sort of programs are out there and whether or not they would be useful
to collect data from. Thank you so much for your time and response.
Sincerely,
Drew Ferren