Forensic Aspects of Trauma Flashcards
What is an injury?
Damage to any part of the body due to the applicationof mechanical force
What are blunt force injuries?
Damage caused by impact with a blunt object e.g ground, fist, foot, weapon
What are the types of injuries you get after a blunt force injury?
Contusions (bruises) - burst blood vessels in skin.
Abrasions - scraping of skin surface.
Lacerations- cut or tear of skin due to crushing.
How are injuries classified?
Appearance or method of causation.
Manner of causation e.g suicidal, accidental etc.
Nature of injury - blunt force, sharp force, explosive
What is the equation for kinetic energy?
Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass x velocity squared.
How does area over which the force acts affect the strength of injury?
Damage to a tissue is much greater if a smaller area is used as the same force driven through a small area.
What can excessive mechanical force cause?
Compression
Traction
Torsion
Tangential (shearing)
What are some factors that affect the prominence of bruises?
Skin pigmentation.
Depth and location - occur more readily over loose skin.
Fat - increased subcutaneous fat means you bruise more easily.
Age- elderly and children.
Resilient areas - bottom, abdomen
Coagulative disorders - thrombocytopenia, Von Willebrand disease, alcoholics, liver disease etc
What are some patterns of abrasions?
Serrated blades.
Bite marks.
Manual strangulation
What are sharp force injuries?
Injury caused by any weapon with a sharp cutting edge. They can be superficial or penetrating
What is an incised wound?
Superficial sharp force injury caused by slashing motion. They are longer on surface than they are deep.
What is a stab wound?
Penetrating injury resulting from thrusting motion. They are deeper than they are long on surface
What is a passive defensive type injury?
Victim raises arms/legs for protection. Sliced, shelved often with skin flaps over backs of hands and forearms
What is an active defensive injury?
Victim tries to grab weapon or attackers hand. Sliced, shelved incised wounds on Palmer aspect of hands and web spaces between fingers- particularly between thumb and index finger
How do self inflicted injuries present?
Commonly sharp force.
Usually on wrists, forearms, chest and abdomen.
They are commonly parallel, multiple and tentative incisions
What is meant by a tentative incision?
Mixture of superficial abrasions and deeper cuts. Indicates they were either plucking up the courage or testing out what strength is needed.
What is diffuse axonal injury?
Clinical term for immediate and prolonged coma with no apparent mass lesion or metabolic abnormality
What is Traumatic axonal injury?
Pathological term for damaged axons due to trauma.
They can be focal or diffuse and are graded 1-3 depending on severity
What is commotion cordis?
Stunning of the heart due to massive impact against the chest
