Blunt force injuries

• Lacerations: tear in skin with tissue bridging; may have abrasions at wound margins, ragged edges, and “undercutting” and “shelving”

• Abrasions: superficial scrapes or scratches involving only the outer layers of the skin

• Contusions (bruises): bleeding into dermis (not epidermis), sub-q tissues, or in other organs secondary to tears in vessels

• Definitions of head injuries involving hemorrhage

  • General

    • Contusion: small area of bleeding in a tissue

    • Hematoma: larger collection of blood

  • Scalpular: bleeding in the scalp

  • Subscalpular: bleeding between scalp and skull

  • Intracranial (nonspecific): bleeding anywhere inside of the skull

  • Epidural (extradural)

    • Bleeding between skull and dura mater

    • Usually associated with skull fracture

    • Occurs only following trauma

    • From arterial sources of blood

  • Subdural

    • Bleeding in the subdural space between the dura and arachnoid mater

    • May be seen with or without skull fracture

    • Usually a traumatic injury, but may be seen in natural disease

    • From venous sources of blood

  • Subarachnoid

    • Bleeding in the subarachnoid space, between the arachnoid and pia mater

    • May be seen with trauma or in natural disease

  • Intracerebral

    • Bleeding within the brain itself

    • May occur with trauma or natural disease

• Brain contusions

  • Involve only the outer surface of the cortex (gray matter)

  • Coup contusion

    • Bruises on surface of brain on the same side as the point of impact

    • Associated with a blow to a stationary head with a moving object

  • Countre-coup contusion

    • Bruise on surface of brain opposite the side of impact

    • Associated with fall or fall-like mechanism (moving head hits stationary object)

• Some auto stuff

  • The windshield is made of laminated glass and is designed to fracture but not fragment

  • Side windows are made of tempered glass and will fragment to produce dicing injuries

Category: Forensic Medicine Notes , Medical Subject Notes