On the assessment of bridging vein rupture associated acute subdural hematoma through finite element analysis

Abstract

Acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) is a type of intracranial haemorrhage following head impact, with high mortality rates. Bridging vein (BV) rupture is a major cause of ASDH, which is why a biofidelic representation of BVs in finite element (FE) head models is essential for the successful prediction of ASDH. We investigated the mechanical behavior of BVs in the KTH FE head model. First, a sensitivity study quantified the effect of loading conditions and mechanical properties on BV strain. It was found that the peak rotational velocity and acceleration and pulse duration have a pronounced effect on the BV strains. Both Young’s modulus and diameter are also negatively correlated with the BV strains. A normalized multiple linear regression model using Young’s modulus, outer diameter and peak rotational velocity to predict the BV strain yields an adjusted -value of 0.81. Secondly, cadaver head impact experiments were simulated with varying sets of mechanical properties, upon which the amount of successful BV rupture predictions was evaluated. The success rate fluctuated between 67 and 75%. To further increase the predictive capability of FE head models w.r.t. BV rupture, future work should be directed towards improvement of the BV representation, both geometrically and mechanically.

Keywords:

• Bridging veins
• acute subdural hematoma
• mechanical properties
• finite element modelling
• head impact

Notes

The authors have no competing interests arising from the direct applications of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a PhD grant from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (I.W.T.-Vlaanderen) [grant number 121261], by a FWO-Levenslijn project grant [grant number G.0C67.13], by a personal FWO fellowship [grant number PDO/12]; and by a research grant of KU Leuven [grant number 3E120264].