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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.
CSF rhinorrhoea may be a sign of a basilar skull fracture. Other signs of a basilar skull fracture include CSF otorrhea (drainage of CSF through the ear ). [ 2 ] It can have devastating complications in some patients, as the communication between the nasal cavity, the cerebrospinal fluid and the central nervous system can result in severe ...
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]
In March 2011, investigators from Australia and several other countries published the results of the DECRA [5] trial in The New England Journal of Medicine.This was a randomized trial comparing decompressive craniectomy to best medical therapy run between 2002 and 2010 to assess the optimal management of patients with medically refractory ICP following diffuse non-penetrating head injury.
Infections that can follow skull fractures and penetrating injuries include meningitis and abscesses. [92] Complications involving the blood vessels include vasospasm , in which vessels constrict and restrict blood flow, the formation of aneurysms , in which the side of a vessel weakens and balloons out, and stroke.
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.
Closed-head injury is a type of traumatic brain injury in which the skull and dura mater remain intact. Closed-head injuries are the leading cause of death in children under 4 years old and the most common cause of physical disability and cognitive impairment in young people.
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]