What can a baby's skull withstand? Testing the skull's resistance on an anatomical preparation

A fall scenario is often given to explain the reason for a head injury to an infant. Mostly the examining doctor or forensic expert has to rely on his own experience and to appraise the situation to be consistent or not with his finds. An experiment carried out on an anatomical preparation showed th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forensic science international 2005-07, Vol.151 (2), p.187-191
Main Author: Holck, Per
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidental Falls
Analysis
Anatomy
Biological and medical sciences
Biophysical Phenomena
Biophysics
Cadaver
Child
Child abuse
Child Abuse - diagnosis
Craniocerebral Trauma - pathology
Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted
Fall experiments
Forensic anthropology
Forensic medicine
Forensic Medicine - methods
Forensic sciences
Fractures
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Male
Medical sciences
Models, Biological
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Skull
Skull trauma
Victimology
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Summary:A fall scenario is often given to explain the reason for a head injury to an infant. Mostly the examining doctor or forensic expert has to rely on his own experience and to appraise the situation to be consistent or not with his finds. An experiment carried out on an anatomical preparation showed that the skull of a newborn baby was able to repeatedly resist forces of up to 1000 N before breaking in. Even then the fracture lines followed the bony spikes (spiculae) from the ossification centers of the skull bones. If fractures are running across these spiculae there is reason to believe that high local force has been used, and a blow against a sharp edge must be considered.
ISSN:0379-0738
1872-6283
DOI:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.12.038