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The Biomechanics of Thoracic Trauma

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Accidental Injury

Abstract

During impact with an automobile, the thorax can interact with various components of the automobile interior and with several types of restraint. The types of interactions include unrestrained driver or passenger with steering wheel or instrument panel, and interactions with active or passive restaints, including three-point lap/shoulder belts, two-point shoulder belts, knee bolsters, and air bags. Injury to the thorax commonly occurs in frontal and side impacts and in impact directions intermediate to these two. In automotive accidents chest injury ranks only second to head injury in overall number of fatalities and serious injuries. It ranks second to head injury in overall economic cost using the Harm concept of Malliaris et al. (1982, 1985) as shown in Table 15.1.

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Authors
  1. John M. Cavanaugh
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, 92093, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Alan M. Nahum

  2. Biomedical Science Department, General Motors Research Laboratories, 48090, Warren, MI, USA

    John W. Melvin

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Cavanaugh, J.M. (1993). The Biomechanics of Thoracic Trauma. In: Nahum, A.M., Melvin, J.W. (eds) Accidental Injury. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2264-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2264-2_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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