1. Chapter 1 - Biomechanics of Musculoskeletal Injury KNES 463

2. Why study the biomechanics of injuries?  National Safety Council: Annual cost > $435 million and 40% of hospital admissions  Unintentional injuries are the 5 th leading cause of death in the U.S.  Potential life span for injures related deaths 36 years

3. What is the difference between an accident and injury?  Accident: unexpected, unavoidable and unintentional event  Some accidents involve injuries

4. What is an injury?  Damage caused by physical trauma sustained by tissues of the body

5. What is Biomechanics?  The applications of mechanical principles to biological problems.  Mechanism: Physical process responsible for a given action, reaction, or result.  Interdisciplinary approach (anatomy, physiology, mechanics, medicine, engineering, psychology)

6. Historical Perspective  Origins of mankind (prehistoric)  Treatment of injuries also as old as injuries  Surgical Instruments by Indian, Egyptians, Incas, and other cultures

7. Famous Contributors to the study of Injuries  Hippocrates: Establish foundations for the study of injury and medicine. Father of medicine.  Described many Orthopaedic conditions

8. Famous Contributors to the study of Injuries  Galen: Roman Physician (Gladiators)  Basic anatomy, treatment of spinal deformities, use of pressure bandages  Dark Ages after Roman Empire

9. Famous Contributors to the study of Injuries  Andreas Vesalius: Belgian Physician, provided detailed anatomical drawings of human dissections

10. Famous Contributors to the study of Injuries  Leonardo DaVinci: Role of joints, body senses (pain), trauma (impact), scientific drawings, similarities between man and machine.

11. Industrial Age and Technology  Technological advances  Laser surgery  Arthroscopy  Artificial joints  Microsurgery

12. Epidemiology  Study of incidence, distribution, and control of disease (can predispose a person to injury) and injury in a given population

13. Epidemiological Studies  Descriptive: Analysis of the frequency and distribution of an injury in a population  Categorization items: –Severity –Location (site) –Type of disability –Population subset –Activity  Analytical: Finds the cause and effect relationships in an injury –More difficult, time consuming –Must rule out all possible factors such as coincidence or mere correlation

14. Terminology  Incidence: Number of new injuries in fixed period of time by a group of people at risk.  Prevalence: Number of people with an injury/number of people at risk  Injury rate: Number of injury in population/reference measure (practice episodes, hours of exposure, innings played)  Relative risk: Likelihood of an injury happening to a group

15. Psychological Perspective A person’s likelihood to injury depends on the task, environment, and the person’s psychological state

16. Psychological States  Psychological states predispose people to injuries –Stress –Distraction –Fatigue

17. Human Error Inappropriate or undesirable human decision or behavior that has the potential for reducing effectiveness safety or performance

18. How can we reduce human error?  Selection of people with appropriate skills  Training  Effective equipment, procedures, and environment

19. Why do people suffer accidents?  Accident-proneness  Accident-liability (situations)  Capability-demand (increase demands)  Adjustment-stress (increase stress levels)  Arousal-alertness (boredom/anxiety)  Goals-freedom-alertness (workers set own goals  injuries)  CFAC (comprehensive multi-factor model)

20. Risk for Injury or death  Perception of risks –overestimation of expertise or abilities –overemphasizing situations –It can’t happen to me! philosophy

21. Psychological factors in Injury

22. How can we prevent injuries?  Injury Control programs –educate those at risk –Legislation (seat belts) –Automatic protection (airbags)  Automatic protection is the most effective

23. How can we prevent injuries?  Health & safety Education Programs –Least effective program –Greater the effort to adopt a safer behavior the less likely the adoption of that behavior  Fitness Programs –Fit individual a less likely to be injured and recover faster

24. Can injuries be eliminated? No, but the severity and the incidence can be reduced