Authors: Shrawan Kumar Robert Ferrari Yogesh Narayan Edgar R Vieira
Publish Date: 2005/07/21
Volume: 167, Issue: 3, Pages: 345-351
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the response of the cervical muscles to increasing lowvelocity whiplashtype lateral impacts when the occupant is seated out of the recommended driving position neutral posture Twenty healthy volunteers were subjected to left lateral impacts of 41 77 105 and 137 m/s2 acceleration with their trunk flexed by 45° and laterally flexed to the right and left also by 45° at the time of impact Bilateral electromyograms of the sternocleidomastoids trapezii and splenii capitis were recorded Under these conditions of trunkflexed postures in a left lateral impact muscle responses were of generally low magnitude with the trunk flexed to either the left or right Even at the highest acceleration of 137 m/s2 all muscles generated less than 37 of their known maximal voluntary contraction electromyogram Also in these left lateral impacts the right splenius capitis showed a greater EMG response than the left splenius capitis regardless of whether the subject was flexed to the right or left at the time of impact The right splenius capitis the one contralateral to the left lateral impact direction was more active than its counterpart Compared to what is known for EMG responses with an occupant in the neutral posture the right sternocleidomastoid usually the most active muscle in a left lateral collision was significantly lessactive with trunk flexion than with neutral posture conditions P001 In the absence of bodily impact the flexed trunk posture does not produce a biomechanical response that would increase the likelihood of cervical muscle injury in low velocity lateral impacts and may lessen the risk of injury for some muscles
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