The tolerance of the human body to automobile collision impact ? a systematic review of injury biomechanics research, 1990?2009

Revisión sistemática de experimentación biomecánica

Road traffic injuries account for 1.3 million deaths per year world-wide. Mitigating both fatalities and
injuries requires a detailed understanding of the tolerance of the human body to external load. To identify
research priorities, it is necessary to periodically compare trends in injury tolerance research to the
characteristics of injuries occurring in the
field. This study sought to perform a systematic review on the
last twenty years of experimental injury tolerance research, and to evaluate those results relative to
available epidemiologic data. Four hundred and eight experimental injury tolerance studies from
1990 2009 were identified from a reference index of over 68,000 papers. Examined variables included
the body regions, ages, and genders studied; and the experimental models used. Most (20%) of
the publications studied injury to the spine. There has also been a substantial volume of
biomechanical research focused on upper and lower extremity injury, thoracic injury, and injury to
the elderly although these injury types still occur with regularity in the
field. In contrast, information
on pediatric injury and physiological injury (especially in the central nervous system) remains lacking.
Given their frequency of injury in the
field, future efforts should also include improving our
understanding of tolerances and protection of vulnerable road users (e.g., motorcyclists, pedestrians).