RESEARCH ARTICLE A Statistical Skull Geometry Model for

Head injury is the leading cause of fatality and long-term disability for children. Pediatric heads change rapidly in both size and shape during growth, especially for children under 3 years old (YO). To accurately assess the head injury risks for children, it is necessary to un-derstand the geometry of the pediatric head and how morphologic features influence injury causation within the 0–3 YO population. In this study, head CT scans from fifty-six 0–3 YO children were used to develop a statistical model of pediatric skull geometry. Geometric fea-tures important for injury prediction, including skull size and shape, skull thickness and su-ture width, along with their variations among the sample population, were quantified through a series of image and statistical analyses. The size and shape of the pediatric skull change significantly with age and head circumference. The skull thickness and suture width vary with age, head circumference and location, which will have important effects on skull stiff-ness and injury prediction. The statistical geometry model developed in this study can pro-vide a geometrical basis for future development of child anthropomorphic test devices and pediatric head finite element models