BIOMECHANICS OF PENETRATING TRAUMA

It is well known that injuries and deaths due to penetrating projectil es have become a national and an international epidemic in Western soc iety. The application of biomedical engineering to solve day-to-day pr oblems has produced considerable advances in safety and mitigation/pre vention of trauma. The study of penetrating trauma has been largely in the military domain where war-time specific applications were advance d with the use of hi,oh-velocity weapons. With the velocity and weapon caliber in the civilian population at half or less compared with the military counterpart, wound ballistics is a largely different problem in today's trauma centers. The principal goal of the study of penetrat ing injuries in the civilian population is secondary prevention and op timized emergency care after occurrence. A thorough understanding of t he dynamic biomechanics of penetrating injuries quantifies missile typ e, caliber, and velocity to hard and soft tissue damage. Such informat ion leads to a comprehensive assessment of the acute and long-term tre atment of patients with penetrating injuries. A review of the relevant military research applied to the civilian domain and presentation of new technology in the biomechanical study of these injuries offer foun dation to this field. Relevant issues addressed in this review article include introduction of the military literature, the need for seconda ry prevention, environmental factors including projectile velocity and design, experimental studies with biological tissues and physical mod els, and mathematical simulations and analyses, Areas of advancement a re identified that enables the pursuit of biomechanics research in ord er to arrive at better secondary prevention strategies.