The biomechanical behaviour of the bridging vein–superior sagittal sinus complex with implications for the mechanopathology of acute subdural haematoma

Abstract

BackgroundTraumatic brain injury is expected to become the major cause of death and disability for children and young adults by the year 2020. One of the most frequent and most morbid pathologies resulted from a head trauma is acute subdural haematoma (ASDH). For nearly one third of the ASDH cases the etiopathology directly relates to a bridging vein (BV) rupture. MethodsIn the current study the bridging vein–superior sagittal sinus (BV–SSS) units were axially stretched until failure for strain rates ranging from 2.66s−1 to 185.61s−1, in order to investigate any strain rate dependency in their mechanical behaviour. FindingsResults showed that up to 200s−1, the effect of the strain rate on veins' mechanical behaviour is outweighed by the large morphological intra- and inter-individual variations. Gender had a strong influence on the BVs geometrical description, but exerted no direct influence on the BV biomechanical parameters. Veins' dimensions had the strongest influence on the BV mechanical behaviour and on the failure mechanism. InterpretationThe present study brings important contribution to the ASDH research, emphasising the importance of considering the BV–SSS complex as a whole when trying to describe the ASDH mechanopathology.