Although not life threatening in most cases, victims of lower extremity injuries frequently end up living with a poor quality of life. The implementations of airbag supplement restraint systems significantly reduce the incidence of head and chest injuries. However, the frequency of leg injuries remains high. Several finite element models (FEM's) of the foot and ankle have been developed to further understand this injury mechanism. None of those models employed accurate geometry among various bony segments. The objective of this study is to develop a foot and ankle FEM based on CT scan data so that joint geometry can be accurately represented. The model was validated against experimental data tor several different configurations including typical car crash situations. (A)
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