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A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma.If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near the site of the impact and cause damage to the underlying structures within the skull such as the membranes, blood vessels, and brain.
A basilar skull fracture typically requires a significant degree of trauma to occur. [1] It is defined as a fracture of one or more of the temporal, occipital, sphenoid, frontal or ethmoid bone. [1] Basilar skull fractures are divided into anterior fossa, middle fossa and posterior fossa fractures. [1] Facial fractures often also occur. [1]
A penetrating head injury, or open head injury, is a head injury in which the dura mater, the outer layer of the meninges, is breached. [1] Penetrating injury can be caused by high-velocity projectiles or objects of lower velocity such as knives, or bone fragments from a skull fracture that are driven into the brain.
In time the swelling hardens (calcification) leaving a relatively softer centre so that it appears as a 'depressed fracture'. Cephalohematoma should be distinguished from another scalp bleeding called subgaleal hemorrhage (also called subaponeurotic hemorrhage), which is blood between the scalp and skull bone (above the periosteum) and is more ...
The occipital bone overlies the occipital lobes of the cerebrum. At the base of the skull in the occipital bone, there is a large oval opening called the foramen magnum, which allows the passage of the spinal cord. Like the other cranial bones, it is classed as a flat bone. Due to its many attachments and features, the occipital bone is ...
The Hangman's fracture which is a fracture of the C2 vertebral body or dens of the cervical spine upon which the skull base sits to allow the head to rotate, can also be associated with atlanto-occipital dislocation. Despite its eponym, the fracture is not usually associated with a hanging mechanism of injury. [13]
Unlike a broken bone where trauma to the body is obvious, head trauma can sometimes be conspicuous or inconspicuous. In the case of an open head injury, the skull is cracked and broken by an object that makes contact with the brain. This leads to bleeding. Other obvious symptoms can be neurological in nature.
The basilar part of the occipital bone (also basioccipital) extends forward and upward from the foramen magnum, and presents in front an area more or less quadrilateral in outline. In the young skull, this area is rough and uneven, and is joined to the body of the sphenoid by a plate of cartilage.