REDIPhE Project Background

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the most devastating types of injury, and it results in varying degrees of loss of consciousness, amnesia, neurological deficits, and even death. Head trauma accounts for the majority of trauma deaths.

The effects of TBI are not limited to an individual’s health; they also create a financial burden for families and societies [1]. TBI is the most frequent cause of death in adults aged less than 44 years and is as well the most common cause of long-term disability. Moreover, as the population average age increases, in particular in the European countries, the incidence of TBI related deaths becomes more and more important, being second only to cancer.

This makes TBI a pressing public health and medical problem. The World Health Organization has predicted that road accidents alone, which account for many instances of TBI, will soon constitute the third largest contributor to the global burden of disease and disability (after heart disease and depression) [2]. A recent study of nearly 3000 serious head trauma cases found that 52% of survivors (154/100,000 population) were moderately to severely disabled at 1-year. Many patients never recover full social independence, even though they may have no physical disabilities and a normal life expectancy [3]. Other Epidemiological studies confirmed that TBI will become the third cause of death worldwide by 2020 [1]. If we assume an average TBI hospitalisation rate of 300 per 100.000 population per year and a current EU population of 500 million then it is reasonable to expect 1.5 million of new TBI patients per year in the EU [4]. If similar percentages can be assumed for the Veneto region, then 15000 new patients will need the region hospitals’ care for TBI related problems [5, 6]. It is apparent that the dimension of the problem and its social and economic implications are huge and therefore it is extremely important to intervene to reduce the consequences of head impacts.

Often TBI are caused by impacts occurring while people are involved in ‘dynamic activities’ such as cycling, motorcycling, skiing, horse riding … or working. According to recent data [4], in developed countries the most common causes of TBI are road accidents, falls, sport and work activities. Therefore in many cases the injured person is wearing a helmet to reduce the consequences of possible impacts. The main topic of the present proposal is to rethink the design of protective helmets to avoid traumatic brain injuries.