• Aida Georgeta Monea, Katrien Baeck, Eric Verbeken, Ignaas Verpoest, Sloten Jos Vander JV Biomechanics Section, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300 - box 2419, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium. Electronic address: jos.vandersloten@mech.kuleuven.be., Jan Goffin, and Bart Depreitere.
• Division of Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, UZ Herestraat 49 - box 7003, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Biomechanics Section, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300 - box 2419, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium. Electronic address: moneaaida@yahoo.com.
• J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2014 Apr 1; 32: 155-165.

BackgroundTraumatic brain injury is expected to become the major cause of death and disability for children and young adults by the year 2020. One of the most frequent and most morbid pathologies resulted from a head trauma is acute subdural haematoma (ASDH). For nearly one third of the ASDH cases the etiopathology directly relates to a bridging vein (BV) rupture.MethodsIn the current study the bridging vein-superior sagittal sinus (BV-SSS) units were axially stretched until failure for strain rates ranging from 2.66s(-1) to 185.61s(-1), in order to investigate any strain rate dependency in their mechanical behaviour.FindingsResults showed that up to 200s(-1), the effect of the strain rate on veins' mechanical behaviour is outweighed by the large morphological intra- and inter-individual variations. Gender had a strong influence on the BVs geometrical description, but exerted no direct influence on the BV biomechanical parameters. Veins' dimensions had the strongest influence on the BV mechanical behaviour and on the failure mechanism.InterpretationThe present study brings important contribution to the ASDH research, emphasising the importance of considering the BV-SSS complex as a whole when trying to describe the ASDH mechanopathology.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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