Attaching Face-Shields To Battle Helmets Reduce Brain Trauma From Explosions

From Homeland Security NewsWire:

In the trenches


Attaching face shields to battle helmets reduce brain trauma from explosions

Published 30 November 2010



Most of the deaths of U.S. and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan -- and, earlier, in Iraq -- have been caused by IEDs; IEDs have also left some 130,000 U.S. soldiers and marines suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that continue to affect them long after they leave the combat zone; MIT researchers show that the human face works like a conduit for blast waves moving through the skull and into the brain, where they can wreak havoc ranging from concussion to long-term brain damage; their simulation tests show that when face shields are attached to soldiers' helmets, there is a significant reduction in the amount of stress placed on the brain during blasts



The improvised explosive device (IED) has defined insurgent warfare in the last two decades, allowing relatively low-tech warriors to inflict major damage on better-equipped conventional troops. IEDs have also left some 130,000 U.S. soldiers and marines suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that continue to affect them long after they leave the combat zone.



A new study by MIT scientists suggests that adding a simple face shield to standard issue combat helmets could significantly reduce brain injury in soldiers.



Clay Dillow writes that the face, it turns out, works like a conduit for blast waves moving through the skull and into the brain, where they can wreak havoc ranging from concussion to long-term brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder. The researchers — a collaboration between MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a neurologist at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — used MRI to model features of the head (including the skull, the brain, sinuses, and various bodily fluids) and then subjected those models to data on mechanical events like shockwaves.



By observing the way a chemical explosion impacts the head both with a combat helmet and without, the team deduced that while the Advanced Combat Helmet (the standard issue bucket for most ground troops) delayed the arrival of blast waves somewhat, it did not reduce the overall impact because waves could travel unimpeded through the face. After adding a conceptual face shield to the simulation, however, the models showed a significant reduction in the amount of stress placed on the brain during blasts.