Citation

Crudele GDL, Merelli VG, Vener C, Milani S, Cattaneo C. J. Forensic Sci. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Milan, Via Luigi Mangiagalli, 37, Milan, 20133, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14149

PMID

31433492

Abstract

The interpretation of cranial base injuries has never been investigated from a purely anthropological perspective. Very little exists in forensic literature in order to interpret the significance of cranial base fractures. We analyzed 296 cases of deaths due to skull-brain injuries. The frequency of vault fractures was 75.7% and that of base fractures was 91.9%. We observed the distribution of cases of death according to manner of death and manner of injury and number of fossae involved. These observations were analytically compared to different variables (age, sex, manner of injury, and mode of injury). The study presented the proportion of base fractures associated with vault fractures, and the frequency of absence of base fracture in subjects with no vault fractures. Interesting associations of base fractures to age and manner of death are shown.

© 2019 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

cranial base fractures; forensic anthropology; forensic science; head trauma; human remains; skull fractures