New guidelines published in BMJ

New guidelines published by IBRN colleagues relating to blast loading conditions for primary blast injury experimental research

A new article has been published in the British Medical Journal Military Health by Dr Jack Denny, Dr Alex Dickinson and Prof Genevieve Langdon: ‘Guidelines to inform the generation of clinically relevant and realistic blast loading conditions for primary blast injury research’.

At present, there are no guidelines specifically for the design or specification of appropriate blast wave parameters within experimental primary blast injury (PBI) studies. Through analysis of PBI criteria and theoretical blast wave calculations, zones of blast parameters are proposed to guide experimental designs.

Key messages include:

•The range of blast conditions of relevance to PBI research is limited, prompting reason for researchers to consider whether loading conditions are appropriate.

•While many experimental loading conditions are achievable, this analysis demonstrated limits that should be observed to ensure loading is clinically relevant, realistic and practical.

•To simulate loading conditions found outside the fireball and of clinical relevance to PBIs, generated blast waves should correspond to blast scaled distances 1.75<Z<6.0.

•Blast waves with positive phase durations (2-10ms) are typically more practical to achieve, while representing realistic threats such as IEDs (i.e. 1-50kg TNT equivalent).

See the full article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjmilitary-2021-001796