Traumatic Injuries of the Planum Occipitale and Posterior Fossa Brain Parenchyma

Abstract

When Holbourn close to forty years ago indexed rotational head injury for the prediction of brain lesions he presented experimental findings on diagrams of the gelatine head model [2, 3]. Areas with highest stress pattern were parasagittal and tem-poro-parietal. Lowest stress pattern for prediction of brain lesions was cerebellum. About thirty years later Ommaya et al. [7] critically reviewed the theories about coup and contré-coup brain injury. They added their own experimental work on sixty-seven adult rhesus monkeys and based upon their data they concluded that “the energy entering a head on impact is partitioned in three ways”: 1. Skull distortion (contact phenomenon of impact) which includes the pressure fields generated within the cranium. 2. Translation of the head (movement in a straight line) and 3. Rotation of the head (hyperflexion, hyperextension, lateral bending and twisting of the head on the neck).