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The prevalence of spinal disc herniations in people with no spinal symptoms have been reported to increase with age; from about 20% in those below 40 years to about 30% in those above 40 years. Spinal disc herniations are usually associated with degenerative changes. Though rare, spinal disc herniations can also be caused by trauma. With an increasing number of older people on U.S. roads with a concomitant increase in the probability of getting injured in a vehicle collision, it is reasonable to expect that some of these occupants can present with clinical findings of spinal disc herniations after a side impact, and attribute these findings to the impact. In this study, we looked at the relationship between real world side impacts and the occurrence of spinal injuries, in particular disc herniations, in occupants involved in such impacts.

Disc herniations in the spine are commonly associated with degenerative changes, and the prevalence increases with age. Though rare, spinal disc herniations can also be caused by trauma. With increasing number of older drivers on U.S. roads, there is an expected proportionate increase in clinical findings of disc herniations in occupants involved in vehicle impacts. Our goal in this study is to determine whether there is a causal relationship between frontal impacts and the occurrence of disc herniations in the occupants of these impacts. We further aim to determine the prevalence of different types of spinal injury and to evaluate the effects of crash severity and other parameters on different types of spinal injury in such impacts. Using data from the National Automotive Sampling System - Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) database from 1993 through 2014, we examined the reported occurrence of all spine injuries for adult occupants in frontal impact.

Disc herniations in the spine are commonly associated with degenerative changes, and the prevalence increases with increasing age. With increasing number of older people on U.S. roads, we can expect an increase in clinical findings of disc herniations in occupants involved in rear impacts. Whether these findings suggest a causal relationship is the subject of this study. We examined the reported occurrence of all spine injuries in the National Automotive Sampling System - Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) database from 1993 to 2014. There were over 4,000 occupants that fit the inclusion criteria. The findings in this study showed that, in the weighted data of 2.9 million occupants, the most common spine injury is an acute muscle strain of the neck, followed by strain of the low back. The delta-V of a rear impact is a reliable indicator of the rate of acute cervical strain in occupants exposed to such impacts.

It is widely accepted that a motorcycle helmet will reduce the risk of a serious brain injury during an accident through energy dissipation. Currently, there is no literature on what happens to a motorcycle helmet after repeated significant impacts or why it cannot be re-used according to the DOT label. It is also unclear experimentally if the foam liner is permanently affected after repeated impacts. In this study, we repetitively dropped one style of DOT-approved motorcycle helmet using a drop tower system in accordance with FMVSS 218. Helmeted Hybrid III and magnesium headforms were dropped onto a flat anvil with contact to the apical region of the helmets. Strips of pressure-indicating film were placed in the mid-sagittal plane between the foam liner and the headform. Headform accelerations and head injury criterion (HIC) for the Hybrid-III headform were calculated for each drop test. There was a trend for maximum headform acceleration to increase with the number of impacts.

Although most of the research on vehicular rear impacts has focused on the neck, there is increasing current concern about the lumbar spine. Spinal bending superimposed with sudden spinal compression has been suggested as a mechanism of creating acute herniations on the rare occasion in which low back pain associated with an intervertebral disc herniation was reported. During automotive rear-impacts, the vehicle accelerations are directed anteriorly, and the seat backs deflect posteriorly. In vehicle seats equipped with floor-mounted seatbelt restraints, the pelvis is restrained by the seatback and seatbelt, while the torso ramps upward and rearward on the seatback during the rearward motion, producing tension in the lumbar spine. However, in an all-belts-to-seat arrangement, the lumbar spines may experience overall compressive and bending loads.