Differences In Injury Severity Research Articles

Workplace injury experience of female coal miners in the United States.

Analysis of the 1978-1980 accident history of female coal miners collected by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has identified significant differences in injury severity due to mine type, source and nature of injury, geographic region, age class, and part of body injured. Approximately 4% of all female coal workers were involved in a lost-time accident as compared to 7% for males; female workers lost approximately 1.1 days each as compared to 2.4 days for males; and 0.01% of the female work force were fatally injured as compared to 0.05% among males. Most injuries to both female and male workers involved back sprains. The majority of remaining injuries are sprains and fractures to joints and bones of the limbs.

Factors Affecting Mortality in Pelvic Fractures

Review of 100 consecutive patients with pelvic fractures admitted to a trauma service during an 11-month period was undertaken in order to define the factors which affected the mortality. Mortality was most significantly affected by severity of injury, presence of a head injury, admitting blood pressure, admitting hemoglobin level, and requirements for blood and blood products. Evaluation of anatomic configuration of fractures demonstrated that posterior fractures required larger amounts of blood and blood products, had a significantly decreased admitting blood pressure, and had a significantly higher mortality, despite there being no significant difference in injury severity between patients having anterior or posterior fractures.

Influence of post mortem changes on experimental safety belt injuries.

Belt protected car occupants involved on head-on collisions do not seem to suffer as severe injuries as unembalmed cadavers subjected to comparable simulated head-on collisions. Therefore it has been questioned if cadavers constitute adequate test specimens for study of thoracic tolerances. This investigation compares injuries in safety belt wearing living and dead pigs which have been subjected to simulated head-on collisions on an acceleration tract. Tests were performed on all 20 pigs (10 living and 10 dead). The arterial side of the circulatory system of the dead pigs was infused. The force in the safety belts, the intraaortic pressure, the impact velocity and the deceleration of the sled were recorded. The tests were high speed filmed. Post mortem examination of the pigs revealed differences in injury severity. Dead pigs more easily suffered rib fractures. Deformation of the rib cage due to stripping of the periosteum and laceration of surrounding tissue occurred mainly in the dead pigs. Laceration of intrathoracic blood vessels was seen in dead pigs while isolated heart lesions were seen only in living animals. The main cause of these differences in tolerance level seems to be post mortem changes of the mechanical properties of the different tissues. The results are valid for pigs but indicate that great care has to be exercised when results obtained from cadaver experiments are evaluated concerning thoracic tolerance.