New Approaches to Pedestrian Knee Joint Biomechanics

Injury epidemiologic data suggests that tibia fractures are far more common than knee ligament injuries in pedestrians impacted by vehicles. However, studies using post mortem human subjects (PMHS) and computational models (whose responses are based on PMHS testing) predict a much higher ratio of knee ligament injuries than tibia fractures. Vehicle pedestrian impacts with PMHS have shown that when the tibia is fractured, loading across the soft‐tissues of the knee joint is reduced, thereby preventing injury. While the absence of the stiffening effect of musculature may play a role in this difference in observed injury, another potential reason may be related to how the knee joint has been characterized biomechanically. Specifically, knee joint response data that are used to inform computational models have been performed solely with the knee in full extension, and only in the valgus loading direction. This setup is potentially problematic, given that full extension of the knee joint occurs only during standing and rarely during gait. Further, laterally impacted pedestrians typically have one knee joint that is loaded in valgus bending while the other is loaded in varus bending. This difference in boundaries is exacerbated in computational knee joint models that include knee ligaments typically use ligament material property data derived from tests on PMHS bone‐ligament‐bone (BLB) samples. Since specimens are extracted from intact knee joints, the neutral loading state of the ligament in vivo cannot be identified, and the resulting data, as well as the derivative models, assume that a zero load state as the initial condition within the knee joint. This study aims to describe a new methodology for determining the biomechanical response of a knee joint and its ligaments for pedestrian injury modelling. To that end, knee joints are tested in varus and valgus bending, at a variety of flexion angles, in order to assess strains in the medial collateral ligament are measured to determine strains in the neutral joint.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ircobi.org/wordpress/downloads/irc17/pdf-files/29.pdf
• 
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22353151
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of the International Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI).
• Corporate Authors:

  International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI)

  Winkelriedstrasse 27
  Zurich,   Switzerland  CH-8006
• Authors:
  • Sun, Zhaonan
  • Gepner, Bronislaw
  • Spratley, E Meade
  • Toczyski, Jacek
  • Kerrigan, Jason R
• Conference:
  • 2017 IRCOBI Conference
  • Location: Antwerp , Belgium
  • Date: 2017-9-13 to 2017-9-15
• Publication Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 2p
• Monograph Title: 2017 IRCOBI Conference Proceedings
• Serial:
  • IRCOBI Conference Proceedings
  • Publisher: International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI)
  • ISSN: 2235-3151
  • Serial URL: http://www.ircobi.org/proceedings.php

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Biokinematics; Biophysics; Cadavers; Crash injuries; Crash victim simulation; Fractures (Anatomy); Pedestrian vehicle interface; Physiology
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01648647
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 20 2017 5:05PM