The risk of fragment penetrating injury to the heart.
Tsukada, Hirotaka Nguyen, Thuy-Tien N Breeze, John Masouros, Spyros D
Tsukada, Hirotaka
Nguyen, Thuy-Tien N
Breeze, John
Masouros, Spyros D
Abstract
Injury due to the penetration of fragments into parts of the body has been the major cause of morbidity and mortality after an explosion. Penetrating injuries into the heart present very high mortality, yet the risk associated with such injuries has not been quantified. Quantifying this risk is key in the design of personal protection and the design of infrastructure. This study is the first quantitative assessment of cardiac penetrating injuries from energised fragments. Typical fragments (5-mm sphere, 0.78-g right-circular cylinder and 1.1-g chisel-nosed cylinder) were accelerated to a range of target striking velocities using a bespoke gas-gun system and impacted ventricular and atrial walls of lamb hearts. The severity of injury was shown to not depend on location (ventricular or atrial wall). The striking velocity with 50% probability of critical injury (Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 5 score) ranged between 31 and 36 m/s across all 3 fragments used. These findings can help directly in reducing morbidity and mortality from explosive events as they can be implemented readily into models that aim to predict casualties in an explosive event, inform protocols for first responders, and improve design of infrastructure and personal protective equipment.
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Date
2023-03-11
Type
Article
Subject
Human physiology
Citation
Tsukada H, Nguyen TN, Breeze J, Masouros SD. The risk of fragment penetrating injury to the heart. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2023 May;141:105776. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2023.105776. Epub 2023 Mar 11.
Journal / Source Title
Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials
DOI
10.1016/j.jmbbm.2023.105776
PMID
36989869
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher’s URL
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/17516161