Rigid-body modelling of shaken baby syndrome

Abstract

Recent reassessment of the literature on the shaken baby syndrome (SBS) has revealed a lack of scientific evidence and understanding of all aspects of the syndrome. In particular, studies have been unable to clarify the mechanisms of injury, indicating that impact, rather than shaking alone, is necessary to cause the type of brain damage observed. Rigid-body modelling (RBM) was used to investigate the effect of neck stiffness on head motion and head-torso impacts as a possible mechanism of injury. Realistic shaking data obtained from an anthropometric test dummy (ATD) was used to simulate shaking. In each study injury levels for concussion were exceeded, though impact-type characteristics were required to do so in the neck stiffness study. Levels for the type of injury associated with the syndrome were not exceeded. It is unlikely that further gross biomechanical investigation of the syndrome will be able to significantly contribute to the understanding of SBS. Current injury criteria are based on high-energy, single-impact studies. Since this is not the type of loading in SBS it is suggested that their application here is inappropriate and that future studies should focus on injury mechanisms in low-energy cyclic loading.