Thoracolumbar spine kinematics and injuries in frontal impacts with reclined occupants.

CONCLUSIONS: Anterior rotation of the pelvis caused increased extension of the lumbar spine, which exacerbated lumbar compression in two of the PMHS; the one subject whose pelvis kinematic tracking was lost exhibited similar compression kinematics. Posterior rotation of the pelvis enabled lumbar flexion, which decreased lumbar compression, but lead to lap-belt submarining in one case. Lumbar kinematics for these reclined frontal impacts were sensitive to changes in initial posture of the spine (magnitude of lordosis or kyphosis) and pelvis (pitch angle). To our knowledge, this study is the first to analyze thoracolumbar kinematics and resulting injuries of a reclined seating posture using PMHS. PMID: 33206553 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Traffic Injury Prevention - Category: Accident Prevention Authors: Tags: Traffic Inj Prev Source Type: research