Blunt abdominal trauma is a major cause of death in automobile accidents. In terms of frequency, the lateral collisions represent the second type of accident after the frontal impact, but it constitutes the first position in relation to the other configurations in terms of severity: the abdomen is the part of body most implicated and among the injured abdominal organs, the liver being the most affected. In order to understand the liver and abdominal injury mechanisms, and determine their impact tolerance, a series of direct impact tests was undertaken on both the isolated liver, and the right side of the abdomen. A tolerance level of 500 N for the liver and three tolerance criteria for the abdomen: deflexion criteria (60 mm), force criteria (440 daN) and viscous criteria (1.98 m/s) have been determined. These levels correspond to a degree of 3 on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) injury severity scale. (A)
Samenvatting