Liver and spleen injuries in side impact: differences by side of the road driven

More recently, injury from frontal impact has been greatly reduced due to the introduction of safety devices such as airbags and seatbelts. However, injury resulting from side impact still poses a problem. As the human body is asymmetric, the injury pattern and severity will depend on the side of the occupant that is hit by the impacting vehicle. Vehicles in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and England travel on the left side of the road while vehicles in most other countries travel on the right side of the road. In many vehicles, the driver is the only occupant, hence the side of the road the vehicle is driving on becomes significant. Consequently, the objective of this research was to contrast the injury patterns and severity observed from lateral impact to the different sides of the body. This paper focuses on injury patterns to the liver and spleen. It is expected that drivers in left side travelling vehicles would have a greater chance sustaining injury to the liver while drivers in right-side travelling vehicles would have an increased chance sustaining injury to the spleen

Aortic injuries in side impacts: a preliminary analysis

Injuries to the aorta are among the more serious injuries that result from vehicle impacts, and may often be fatal. This paper examined the incidence of aortic injuries in the US and UK using real-world crash data. The main outcome of interest was the level of risk associated with each principal direction of force for drivers and front seat passengers with respect to sustaining aortic injuries. The results indicate that the risk of sustaining an injury to the aorta is greater for near side crashes than for far side crashes. Further, it is apparent that given a near side crash, the risk of an aortic injury is greater on the left side of the body (and left side of the vehicle) than on the right. It was also found that the delta-V of crashes where occupants sustained an injury to the aorta was considerably higher than crashes where occupants did not sustain aortic injuries. It was speculated that the anatomical asymmetry of the thorax might play a role in the differences seen in injury risk associated with different impact directions. Limitations and further planned research are discussed

Thoracic aortic injury in motor vehicle crashes: the effect of impact direction, side of body struck and seat belt use

Using in-depth, realworld motor vehicle crash data from the United States and the United Kingdom, we aimed to assess the incidence and risk factors associated with thoracic aorta injuries

A preliminary analysis of aortic injuries in lateral impacts

Injuries to the aorta are among the more serious injuries that result from vehicle impacts, and often may be fatal. This article examines the incidence of aortic injuries in the United States and United Kingdom by using two international databases of real-world crashes. The main outcome of interest was the level of risk associated with each principal direction of force for drivers and front-seat passengers with respect to sustaining aortic injuries. The results indicate that the risk of sustaining an injury to the aorta is greater for near-side crashes than for far-side crashes. Further it is apparent that, given a near-side crash, the risk of an aortic injury is greater on the left side of the body (and left side of the vehicle) than on the right. It also was found that the delta-V of crashes where occupants sustained an injury to the aorta was considerably higher than crashes where occupants did not sustain aortic injuries. It is speculated that the anatomical asymmetry of the thorax might play a role in the differences seen in injury risk associated with different impact directions. The results presented in this article could be of use to both the emergency physician treating patients involved in motor vehicle collisions as well as the engineer involved in occupant design countermeasures. Limitations and further planned research are discussed