Evaluating the Limits in the Biomechanics of Blunt Lung Injury

Abstract

Thoracic blunt trauma is evident in up to one-fifth of all hospital admissions, and is second only to head trauma in motor vehicle crashes. One of the most problematic injury mechanisms associated with blunt thoracic trauma is pulmonary contusion, occurring in up to 75% of blunt thoracic trauma cases. The source and effects of pulmonary contusion caused by blunt lung injury are not well defined, especially within the field of continuum biomechanics. This, paired with unreliable diagnostics for pulmonary contusion, leads to uncertainty in both the clinical entity and mechanics of how to predict the presence of injury. There is a distinct need to combine the clinical aspects with mechanical insights through the identification and mitigation of blunt lung trauma and material testing and modeling. This is achieved through using the mechanical insights of lung tissue behavior in order to better understand the injurious mechanisms and courses of treatment of blunt-caused pulmonary contusion. This paper hopes to act as a step forward in connecting two perspectives of blunt lung injury, the clinical entity, and mechanical testing and modeling, by reviewing the known literature and identifying the unknowns within the two related fields. Through a review of related literature, clinical evidence is correlated to mechanical data to gain a better understanding of what is being missed in identification and response to blunt lung injury as a whole.