Mesentery and Bowel Injury from Automotive Seat Belts

Abstract

The lap-type seat belt is implicated in perforation and avulsion injuries of bowel and mesentery after automobile collision. Laws of colliding bodies suggest that compressing and shearing forces which develop during sudden deceleration of the crash victim striking the seat belt may account for this injury pattern. Bowel rupture occurs when intestinal wall tension exceeds its bursting potential due to rapidly displaced intestinal contents. Laceration and disruption of relatively inert mesenteric attachments occur when momentum and kinetic energy transmitted by axial forces abruptly displace the intestine itself. No attempt to discredit the value of the seat belt is intended. Rather, the effects of deranged bowel propulsion which may arise from its use during collision suggest that further modification of seat belt design is needed.