Analysis of Head Injuries using Finite Element Method and Its Application to Medico-legal Testimony

1992 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 03557031
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Legal medicine
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: FUJIWARA Satoshi Kobe University, School of Medicine, Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (20173487)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ADACHI Junko Kobe University, School of Medicine, Assistant, 医学部, 助手 (40030887) ; TSUKAMOTO Yasuo Kobe University, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, 医療技術短期大学部, 助教授 (30031149) ; YANAGIDA Yasuyoshi Kobe University, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, 医療技術短期大学部, 助教授 (50031373) ; TATSUNO Yoshitsugu Kobe University, School of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (80030831)
• Project Period (FY): 1991 – 1992
• Keywords: Wounds and injuries / Head injuries / Cerebral contusion / Skull fracture / Finite element method / Personal computer / Blow and fall / Impact site of the head

Research Abstract

1)Finite Element Model of a Human Brain and Skull.
To investigate the deformations and shear strain distributions at the each point of the brain and skull in the human head which incurred an impact force, we made up a computer simulation model of the human brain and skull using the Finite Element Method.
2)Studies on Head Injuries in the Fatal Cases by Blow, Fall and Fall Down.
In blows a lateral region of the head was frequently impacted, a posterior region was done in falls and a posterior region was done in the almost all cases of falls down. With the impact to the lateral region of the head, the coup lesions were more frequent and more severe than the contrecoup lesions in 88.9% of all cases in blows, the contrecoup lesions were in 80.0% in falls and there were merely the contrecoup lesions in almost all cases of the fall down. With frontal impacts, there were merely the coup lesions in all cases of the blow and there were merely the coup lesions in 72.7% in falls, especially in 27.3% the contrecoup lesions were found in the occipital lobes. With posterior impacts, the coup lesions were more frequent and more severe in all cases of the blow, the contrecoup lesions were in 93.3% of all cases in falls and there were merely the contrecoup lesions in almost all cases of the fall down. Depressed or comminuted fractures were often observed in blows and falls, and linear fractures were in falls down.