Adding a face shield to standard-issue troop helmets could decrease the chances of traumatic brain injury
November 26, 2010
Posted by:Jo Chapman
An American study that models how shock waves pass through the head finds that adding a face guard deflects a substantial portion of the blast that otherwise would reverberate through the brain.
While direct impact, such as banging the head, clearly can injure the brain, the forces endured when explosives send shock waves crashing through the head are much more difficult to characterize.
In the new study, researchers led by Raúl Radovitzky of MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies created a computer model of a human head that included layers of fat and skin, the skull, and different kinds of brain tissue. The team modelled the shock wave from an explosion detonated right in front of the face under three conditions: with the head bare, protected by the currently used combat helmet and covered with the helmet plus a polycarbonate face shield.
The results showed that today's US military helmet doesn't exacerbate the damage, but at least in terms of blast protection, it doesn't help much either and the addition of a face shield would improve matters, the team reports.
Soldiers experiencing explosions often describe a wind or wave that makes them see stars. The resulting traumatic brain injury doesn't lead to long-term loss of consciousness, and brain scans yield normal results but the injuries can nevertheless be very serious and lead to severe dysfunction such as chronic headaches, vertigo and difficulty remembering words.