BIOMECHANICS OF CLOSED HEAD IMPACT

This paper begins with a survey and exposition of the biomechanics of head impact covering three major areas of study: mechanical properties of the constituent tissues, animal and cadaver experimental models, and mathematical models. Recent animal experiments of the volume elasticity of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space have shown that the spinal cord cavity acts as a dump tank for the cranial cavity under physiological higher rates of CSF infusion. The question of whether or not this integral volume elasticity of the central nervous system affects the biomechanics of head injury is explored through a simple nonlinear lumped parameter model. It was shown that the intracranial pressure attained (in the CSF) is primarily a function of the fluid volume infused. The rate of CSF pressure rise is directly proportional to the rate of infusion.