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Blunt Trauma

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Atlas of Postmortem Angiography

Abstract

Blunt-force injuries are produced when the body is struck with or strikes a blunt object [1–5]. Both mechanisms result in a transfer of kinetic energy that is high enough to produce an injury. Blunt objects have a relatively large area. Examples of blunt objects are almost infinite: fists, shoes, pipes, bricks, bats, hammers, the ground, or parts of vehicles such as cars, trains, or airplanes. A blunt surface produces injuries by torsion, compression, scraping, tearing, shearing, or crushing. Blunt-force injuries occur in many kinds of medico-legal situations and contexts: criminal assaults, physical child abuse, traffic accidents, and falls (criminal, accidental, or suicidal). The severity of the injuries resulting from trauma is a balance between the amount of force, the area over which it is applied, and the duration of the force [2, 6]. In general, the greater the force, the smaller the area, or the shorter the duration over which the force is applied, the greater the injury will be.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine and Radiology, Service de médecine légale, Service de Radiologie, Hôpital Rangueil, Toulouse, France

    Fabrice Dedouit MD, PhD

  2. Department of Radiology, Service de Radiologie, CHU Toulouse-Rangueil, Toulouse, France

    Fatima-Zohra Mokrane MD, PhS & Hervé Rousseau MD, PhD

  3. Department of Forensic Medicine, Service de médecine légale, Hôpital Rangueil, Toulouse, France

    Fréderic Savall MD, Daniel Rougé MD, PhD & Norbert Telmon MD, PhD

  4. Department of Radiology, Service de Radiologie, Hôpital Pierre Paul Riquet, Toulouse, France

    Marie Faruch MD, PhD

  5. Department of Forensic Imaging, University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jochen M. Grimm MD & Silke Grabherr MD, PhD

  6. Department of Medical Radiology, niversity Hospital Center Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jochen M. Grimm MD

  7. Department of Direction, University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Patrice Mangin MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Fabrice Dedouit MD, PhD
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  2. Fatima-Zohra Mokrane MD, PhS
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  3. Fréderic Savall MD
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  5. Jochen M. Grimm MD
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  6. Silke Grabherr MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabrice Dedouit MD, PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University Center of Legal Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Silke Grabherr

  2. University Center of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Center Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jochen M. Grimm

  3. Institute of Legal Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppend, Hamburg, Germany

    Axel Heinemann

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Dedouit, F. et al. (2016). Blunt Trauma. In: Grabherr, S., Grimm, J., Heinemann, A. (eds) Atlas of Postmortem Angiography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28537-5_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28537-5_26

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