Table. 1.

Traumatic brain injury models

Model	Description	Injury	Strengths	Weaknesses
Middle fluid percussion injury (57)	Fluid pressure pulse delivers an impact on intact dura through craniotomy	Contusion, subcortical injury, secondary degenerative changes	Reproducible, severity of injury can be adjusted	Requires craniotomy that may compensate for ICP rise, high mortality rate due to apnea (59)
Lateral fluid percussion injury (58)	Craniotomy > 3.5 mm off the midline
Controlled cortical impact (60)	Pneumatic cylinder driving a metallic piston impacting intact dura	Acute focal cortical injury	Highly reproducible given control of deformation parameters, useful for biomechanical studies	Need for craniotomy
Marmarou weight-drop (61)	Free fall of brass weights onto plate fixed to skull	Diffuse axonal injury	Reproduces similar injury to human TBI	Not largely reproducible, high mortality
Feeney’s weight-drop (62)	Direct weight-drop on exposed dura	Focal cortical contusion
Penetrating missile injury (63)	Firing a metal projectile from variable distances with a leading shock wave	Extensive hemorrhage and temporary cavity formation	Valuable for study of missile wounds	Needs standardization
Blast injury (64)	Detonation inside cylindrical shock tube	Diffuse axonal injury	Reproduces human TBI	Needs standardization, e.g., location of animal within shock tube and heard immobilization (65)