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In the elderly population, rib fracture is one of the most common injuries sustained in motor vehicle crashes. The current study was conducted to predict the biomechanical fracture responses of ribs with respect to age, gender, height, weight and percentage of ash content. Three-point bending experiments were conducted on 278 isolated rib samples extracted from 82 cadaver specimens (53 males and 29 females between the ages of 21 and 87 years) for 6th and 7th levels of ribs. Statistical analyses were carried out to identify differences based on age and gender. It was found that, in comparison to males, females had significantly lower values for maximum bending moments, slopes of bending moment-angle curves, and average cortical-bone thickness (p < 0.05). Samples of ribs taken from elderly specimens failed at lower values of fracture moments than those from younger specimens, and had lower slopes of bending moment-angle curves, both in males and females (p < 0.05).

Axial loading of the calcaneus-talus-tibia complex is an important injury mechanism for moderate and severe vehicular foot-ankle trauma. To develop a more definitive and quantitative relationship between biomechanical parameters such as specimen age, axial force, and injury, dynamic axial impact tests to isolated lower legs were conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). Twenty-six intact adult lower legs excised from unembalmed human cadavers were tested under dynamic loading using a mini-sled pendulum device. The specimens were prepared, pretest radiographs were taken, and input impact and output forces together with the pathology were obtained using load cell data. Input impact forces always exceeded the forces recorded at the distal end of the preparation. The fracture forces ranged from 4.3 to 11.4 kN.