Biomechanics And Shaken Baby Syndrome

John D. Lloyd, Ph.D., M.Erg.S., CPE, CBIS
Board Certified Ergonomist / Certified Brain Injury Specialist

32824 Michigan Avenue

San Antonio, Florida 33576

813-624-8986

DrJohnLloyd@Tampabay.RR.com

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER SHAKE A BABY. TO DO SO IS CHILD ABUSE.

HOWEVER, BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS HAS PROVEN THAT SHAKING ALONE IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE BRAIN INJURY IN INFANTS.

 

 

Dr Lloyd has conducted an extensive biomechanical evaluation to compare kinematic measures associated with shaking activities against various pediatric activities of daily living. Interestingly, Dr. Lloyd determined that biomechanical risk of brain injury due to non-contact shaking was no greater than that for his 7 month old son playing in his jumparoo. To view the complete report of this study, click the following link: Biomechanical Evaluation of Head Kinematics during Infant Shaking vs Pediatric Activities of Daily Living

Experience:

Dr. Lloyd has an extensive history of biomechanics research pertaining to head injury, which began with a study on behalf of the Department of Veterans’s Affairs to determine the risk of head injury due to patient falls from bed. The results from this study have been presented at national conferences and published in the Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing.

This lead to collaborations with academic and industry partners in a series of research studies to evaluate advanced materials for use in a new generation of medical helmets for the prevention of fall-related head injuries in vulnerable populations, including elderly persons and Veterans with polytrauma and traumatic brain injury.

Within the scope of these projects, Dr. Lloyd has developed and validated state-of-the-art biomechanics data collection instrumentation for assessing the risk of injury due to linear and angular stressors.

Dr. Lloyd is currently involved in two federally-funded research studies to investigate prevention of fall-related head trauma, with $2M in funding support.

Given his extensive experience in the field of biomechanical head /brain trauma, as well as technical resources, Dr. Lloyd has been asked to contribute to the science pertaining to traumatic brain injury in pediatrics / aka shaken baby syndrome. To date he has served on several cases of alleged abusive head injury / shaken baby syndrome.

*Please see source to download full CV

Source:

http://www.drergonomics.com/shakenbaby.html

 

Science To Aid Diagnosis

JOHN EDENS – The Southland Times

05:00 03/12/2010

A researcher hopes to help pediatricians diagnose shaken baby syndrome by using physics and maths to better understand brain injuries.

Auckland Bioengineering Institute PhD student Tom Lintern was speaking at the Medical Sciences Congress in Queenstown yesterday.

Mr Lintern said the syndrome – often the subject of intense courtroom battles – was hard to diagnose. Often, shaken baby syndrome is difficult to diagnose or prove because there are few or no visible marks.

The idea of the research was to investigate what was happening using physics and bio-mechanics, and provide an objective technique to assess soft-tissue damage quantitatively, he said.

“They know shaking is no good.

“There are innocent reasons – people claims it’s abuse but it’s not, there are arguments about whether it’s shaking alone or whether there are other factors.

“This leads to debates in the courtroom,” he said.

A pattern of injuries was typically described as shaken baby syndrome – such as bleeding in the head or retinal damage – but research suggested other benign causes for such injuries.

Asthma or breathing difficulties, for example, could indirectly cause bleeding.

Auckland Bioengineering Institute associate professor Martyn Nash, Mr Lintern’s supervisor, said babies do not have developed neck muscles, which means their heads tend to flop around. Causes other than shaking could lead to the same symptoms as the controversial syndrome, he said.

His student said he planned to build an experimental dummy – similar to a crash test dummy.

Reported cases of shaken baby syndrome in New Zealand account for about 20 of every 100,000 births.

The research, if successful, could provide forensic paediatricians with a new objective tool to sit alongside symptom-based methods. It could also help provide a model to clarify and settle courtroom debate.

Source:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/4418332/Science-to-aid-diagnosis

Profile

Tom Lintern received a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Auckland in 2010.

He began studying towards a PhD at The Auckland Bioengineering Institute in 2010 and his project investigates brain injury mechanisms during motions associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

His research interests include decomposing head motions using instrumentation and analysing the resultant soft tissue deformations.

Source:

http://www.abi.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/tom-lintern