Enhanced statistical analysis of head injury data

Despite advances in road safety, head injuries still account for many of the most serious and fatal injuries in road traffic accidents. Traumatic brain injury is an important global public health problem.

Over the past half a century, a wealth of research has been carried out in an effort to determine the principal mechanisms responsible for head injuries.

However, there are still conflicting notions on the mechanisms that cause head injuries. It is considered that a possible explanation for this incoherence is the confounding factors that appear to have been explored insufficiently in prior research work. Therefore, this study analysed the previous head injury research in greater detail.

Peak linear head acceleration and the HIC were found to be reasonable predictors of serious (AIS ≥ 3) head injury occurrence. However several features of the impact conditions were shown to contribute to the injury outcome.

To address diffuse injuries occurring away from the point of impact, additional risk assessment tools are likely to be necessary. The analysis of the published head injury case data was not able to show the benefit of including a rotational acceleration component in the injury risk assessment.

In order to do this, additional data are needed. Equally, to derive an advanced head injury criterion, or validate a detailed head model irrefutably, for assessing brain injury risks, new data would be required.

Until such data are available, suggestions for new criteria will be subject to the limitations of the existing data. These limitations have been shown to be manifold.