The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of depowered airbags on the overall risk and type of severe upper extremity injuries sustained in frontal automobile crashes. Cases in the National Automotive Sampling System were selected for the years 1993 to 2000 that included drivers and front seat outboard passengers, exposed to an airbag deployment, in passenger cars and light trucks, excluding ejected occupants and rollovers. Only severe upper extremity injuries were analyzed, identified as Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) level 2 severity and higher. It was found that occupants were more likely to sustain a severe upper extremity injury when exposed to a depowered airbag deployment than when exposed to a full powered airbag (p = 0.01). However, there was no difference in injury rate when considering the airbag, specifically, as the source of the injuries (p = 0.67). There was, however, a large shift in the type of severe upper extremity injury based on which type of airbag the occupant was exposed to, and what the injury source was. The top two injury types caused by depowered airbags were fractures (55.3%) and dislocations (44.3%), while full powered airbags caused only 7.9% dislocations and 89.2% fractures.
Abstract