Head impact exposure in junior and adult Australian football players

Tis study measured and compared the frequency, magnitude, and distribution of head impacts sustained by junior and adult Australian football players, respectively, and between player positions over a season of games. Twelve junior and twelve adult players were tracked using a skin-mounted impact sensor. Head impact exposure, including frequency, magnitude, and location of impacts, was quantifed using previously established methods. Over the collection period, there were no signifcant diferences in the impact frequency between junior and adult players. However, there was a signifcant increase in the frequency of head impacts for midfelders in both grades once we accounted for player position. A comparable amount of head impacts in both junior and adult players has implications for Australian football regarding player safety and medical coverage as younger players sustained similar impact levels as adult players. Te other implication of a higher impact profle within midfelders is that, by targeting education and prevention strategies, a decrease in the incidence of sports-related concussion may result

A Review of Instrumented Equipment to Investigate Head Impacts in Sport

Contact, collision, and combat sports have more head impacts as compared to noncontact sports; therefore, such sports are uniquely suited to the investigation of head impact biomechanics. Recent advances in technology have enabled the development of instrumented equipment, which can estimate the head impact kinematics of human subjects in vivo. Literature pertaining to head impact measurement devices was reviewed and usage, in terms of validation and field studies, of such devices was discussed. Over the past decade, instrumented equipment has recorded millions of impacts in the laboratory, on the field, in the ring, and on the ice. Instrumented equipment is not without limitations; however, in vivo head impact data is crucial to investigate head injury mechanisms and further the understanding of concussion

IMPACT FREQUENCY VALIDATION OF HEAD IMPACT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY FOR USE IN SPORT

Head impact frequency has been identified as a contributing factor to long-term trauma experienced by the brain. A peak linear acceleration greater than 20g has been proposed as defining a single impact. The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of a single head impact sensor to identify 209 impacts under short

Methodology for a global bicycle real world accidents reconstruction

The use of the bicycle on a large scale encouraged in the context to develop an eco friendly environment is facing today on a range of barriers. One of these barriers identified by researchers and governments is observed to include ‘road safety’. Hence, it is necessary to set up a protection system for bicyclists especially for the cephalic segment. Currently only few studies are available concerning the head impact loading in case of real accidents. Therefore, the objective of this work is to identify the initial condition of head impact in case of real accident. Head impact velocity and head impact area are extracted and implemented in the last generation of head injury prediction tool to simulate the head trauma by impacting directly the Strasbourg University Finite Element Head Model (SUFEHM) on the vehicle structures. The present study can be divided into three activities i.e. obtain real bicyclist accidents data issued from in depth accident investigation databases, cyclist body kinematic reconstruction to obtain the initial conditions of the head just before the impact and head impact simulation to evaluate the head loading during impact and the injury risk. A total of 26 bicyclists’ accident cases with head injuries have been collected from both a French and a German accident database. For each accident case, body kinematic has been simulated using Madymo® software. Two methodologies and human multibody models were used: 10 accident cases have been reconstructed by IFSTTAR using its owned developed human model and 16 accident cases have been reconstructed by Unistra using the human pedestrian TNO model. The results show that the head is impacted more often on top parietal zone, and the mean impact velocity is 6.8 ± 2.7 m/s with 5.5 ± 3.0 m/s and 3.4 ± 2.1 m/s for normal and tangential components respectively. Among these real accidents, 19 cases have been selected to be simulated by finite element computations by coupling the human head model and a windscreen model whose properties were extracted from literature. All reconstructed head impact gave results in accordance with the damage actually incurred to the victims. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of numerical reconstruction as an understanding tool of the head impact conditions in bicyclist's accident cases, and hence providing knowledge for helmet optimization using biomechanical criteria

Head Impact Biomechanics of Collegiate Football Players

This research study focused on the descriptive head impact biomechanics of collegiate American football players. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were statistical differences in the frequency, peak linear acceleration, and peak rotational acceleration between player position and impact location on the helmet during practice sessions. There were 31 players from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Division I football team that participated in the study. Participants were divided into four groups based on position: defensive skill, defensive line, offensive skill, and offensive line. The Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System was incorporated with the Sideline Response System to wirelessly acquire and record head impact biomechanics. Median values and [Interquartile ranges] of 23.3 [16.4-36.1] g and 1047.2 [693.3-1547.8] rad/s2 were found for this sample. Of the 8,555 impacts recorded during practice sessions, significantly more impacts occurred to the front of the helmet than any other location [χ2 = 2710.886, p= 0.001]. More impacts were sustained by the defensive line and defensive skill players than expected [χ2 = 1962.444, p=0.001]. Higher linear acceleration values were seen at the top of the helmet and by offensive and defensive line players. However, high rotational acceleration values were sustained at the front of the helmet. Although there was significant difference in the rotational acceleration values and player position, no between group differences were found in the follow up test. A relationship was seen between impact location and player position. This study found that despite the notable dangers, impacts to the top of the helmet still result in the highest linear acceleration. This research could lead to future studies such as determining the significance of participation type on the results and if the distribution of players in the group had any impact on the results

Head Impact Situations in Professional Football (Soccer)

To assess head impact incidents (HIIs) and to distinguish diagnosed head injuries from other incidents, a video observation analysis of match HIIs was conducted in the German Bundesliga (2017/18 season). Video recordings of each match were screened to identify the respective events. Head injury data were identified by a prospective injury registry. HII and head injury incidence rates (IR) were calculated with 95 % CIs. The total number of HIIs was 1362 corresponding to an IR of 134.9/1000 match hours (95% CI 127.9–142.2). In 123 HII (IR 12.2, 95% CI 10.2–14.5) the contact was classified as severe. Head contact with the opponent was the most frequent cause (85%). The most frequent mechanism was in 44% (combined) the arm and elbow-to-head, followed by head-to-head and hand-to-head contacts (each 13%). In 58%, the HIIs occurred during header duels. Twenty-nine head injuries were recorded (IR 2.9, 95% CI 2.0–4.1). Concussions/traumatic brain injuries accounted for 48%, head/facial fractures 24%, head/facial contusions 21%, and lacerations/abrasions 7%. The number of HIIs not classified as concussions/more severe trauma was high. Identification of HIIs and head injury severity should be improved during on-field assessment as many head injuries might go unrecognised based on the large number of HIIs