Understanding Craniofacial Blunt Force Injury: A Biomechanical Perspective

One of the most important tasks in forensic investigation of blunt force trauma is to determine accurately the nature and magnitude of the forces applied to the skin. The primary emphasis of research into blunt force trauma has focused on analysing the demographics rather than the mechanobiology of such injuries. Nevertheless, a large body of literature has accumulated on the biomechanics of skin. Here we review this evidence, together with the complex role of intrinsic factors such as age, sex and ethnicity on the wounding susceptibility of skin. We also review how the skin responds to blunt trauma, and try to relate this to the estimation of the force of impact. Finally, we review the current biomechanical models of blunt force trauma, and introduce our own model and its preliminary findings. Contrary to the impression gained from the literature, wounding can be modelled in a basic simulation of the contact events during blunt force impact, and the results be evaluated quantitatively. We conclude that subject-specific parameters could be calculated from a more sophisticated model in order to provide a more robust set of values that can be used to predict forces used in generating skin wounds.