Truma Biomechanics

Trauma Biomechanics: An Introduction to Injury Biomechanics.

Injury is arguably one of the most  under-recognized health problems facing society

today. Potential injury hazards exist everywhere in our daily environments

including the workplace, home, transportation, and sports and recreational settings.

From traffific-related injuries alone, the World Health Organization estimates that

1.2 million people die each year worldwide and as many as 50 million are injured

or disabled. The associated expenditures, lost productivity, legal, and medical

costs resulting from these injuries and fatalities are staggering. More importantly,

the personal losses resulting from serious injury and death are incalculable.

While this trauma often results from catastrophic events that are deemed

accidents, the mechanisms of these injuries are both understandable and pre

ventable. Trauma biomechanics uses engineering principles to explore the physical

response of the human body to applied forces that produce failure of the tissues.

With a fifirm understanding of trauma biomechanics, researchers and designers are

able to apply existing knowledge and to generate new data for the development of

improved injury prevention strategies.

The book, Trauma Biomechanics, provides a comprehensive overview and

introduction to the subject for these researchers and designers. While countless

examples of protective equipment such as seat belts, air bags, and helmets have

been designed using the principles of trauma biomechanics, the prevalence and

severity of the injuries necessitate that we continue to educate and train the next

generation of engineers, scientists, and medical professionals.

I have taught injury biomechanics for more than two decades and this book on

trauma biomechanics has become a mainstay as a supplemental text in my

graduate engineering courses. The book deftly and succinctly covers the back

ground, tools, methods, and resources of trauma biomechanics before delving into

a systematic review of the anatomy, injury classifification, injury mechanisms, and

injury criteria of each body region. Each chapter includes summaries of the most

relevant scientifific literature and biomechanical research that provide background

and context for the interpretation of the graphical and tabular information.

vThe book concludes with a chapter on injury prevention that combines both

collision avoidance as well as passive injury countermeasures. While the intended

audience of the book is primarily scientists and clinicians working in the area of

trauma, the straightforward writing style and graphical depictions make even the

most technical engineering and medical concepts approachable for a broad array of

injury prevention professionals including epidemiologists, social scientists, and

policy makers.