Neck injury criterion based on intervertebral motions and its evaluation using an instrumented neck dummy.

A new neck injury criterion (IV-NIC) was developed. It was based on the following hypothesis: A neck injury occurs when an intervertebral rotation exceeds its physiological limit during whiplash. An instrumented artificial cervical spine, incorporating human quantitative anatomy, kinematics and kinetics, was constructed. Twelve experiments were performed at 3 T1 (first thoracic vertebra) accelerations and 4 initial head-headrest gaps. In general, IV-NIC and NIC increased with T1 accelerations. Both IV-NIC and NIC were highest at middle gap value. IV-NIC indicated severity, location and mode of injury. This comprehensive injury information is helpful in designing whiplash injury prevention systems, and for diagnosis and treatment of whiplash injuries. (A)