Analysis of Shaken Baby Syndrome

1. ACM2E Analysis of Shaken Baby Syndrome MRI-SCANS PRO-ENGINEER HYPERMESH FEM MODEL To perform computational simulations repeated shakings of infant head-brain structure using FiniteElement Method. Shaken baby syndrome is a form of head trauma that affects the nervous system of infants under the age of 5. This trauma is the result of criminal abuse caused by the violent shaking of an infant’s head by thrusting the child back and forth by the chest or shoulders Head trauma has been studied extensively using computational simulations, mostly to support automobile crash testing studies. The role of the simulations are two-fold – firstly, they are useful in understanding the mechanisms of injury by “computationally testing” a range of possible scenarios, secondly, they are very useful for designing safety equipment, automobiles etc. to meet required standards that will protect operators. Hence, regulatory bodies like the NHTSA have created a range of validated Finite Element brain for use by automobile manufacturers and other equipment manufacturers in their safety testing . However, these studies typically involve single event impact type closed-head trauma of adult head models. These models are not appropriate for the analysis of SBS since the head/brain models used have significantly different head and neck structures from infant models. Further, Shaken Baby Syndrome is typically the results of a succession of thrusts back and forth over time scales ranging up to few seconds while most head trauma studies have focused on loadings no longer than a few milliseconds. LS-DYNA POST PROCESSING • Future Work • These simulations will be used to explore multiple injury hypotheses although the primary purpose of our simulations is related to Shaken Baby Syndrome(SBS) related injuries • ·  Tissue damage patterns from simple impact injury and repeated shakings are related but noticeable differences. Simulations will highlight the differences by revealing patterns of internal strains and stresses associated with each type of loading. Clinicians can use such patterns for diagnostic purposes. • ·  Damage observed during SBS is not merely the result of the brain and associated vessels being loaded beyond a threshold of acceleration, either linear or rotational, during the whiplash effect of being shaken about the chest or shoulders. Rather, we hypothesize that the damage is a result of cumulative loading. • The frequency of shaking that is obtainable by an adult human shaking a baby by the chest or shoulders causes a relative rotational velocity between the skull and brain. As subsequent oscillations continue in both strength and frequency, the difference in rotational velocity between the skull and brain increase until the brain is literally rotating in one direction while the skull is rotating directly opposite of the brain. At this point any connective tissue between the brain and skull will be strained, possibly to failure, and potentially the brain could “crash” into the skull itself Load curve obtained by shaking a child dummy. Presented by: Suresh Aswathnarayana Advisor: Dr Abani Patra