Incidence and Patterns of Skull Fractures in Accidental Deaths at Davanagere, Karnataka

Fatalities as a result of accident claim a substantial number of lives in developing countries like India. Deaths due to road traffic accidents (RTA), may call upon entire spectrum of medico legal expertise. Injuries to head are common in road traffic accidents (RTA) and in cases of domestic accidents like fall from height, sports accident, industrial accidents etc., This necessitates us to widen the spectrum of study with respect to head injury involving skull fractures in fatal accidents. Hence the present study was conducted to know the incidence and patterns of skull fractures in fatal accidents with special reference to RTA.

Skull fractures were observed in 41.8% of the total accidental deaths. Amongst these skull fractures, RTA was commonest cause (86.3%). Most victims were male (81.6%), motor cyclists were the commonest victims. Linear fracture (38.8%) was commonest pattern of fracture in RTA and depressed fracture (48.1%) was in cases of fall from height. Sub-arachnoid was the commonest type of intracranial hemorrhage.