PATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF DIFFERENT BRAIN AREAS IN FATAL HEAD INJURY

Abstract

Of all regional injuries, those of the head and neck are not only the most common and most important in forensic practice but also the commonest causes of death amongst young adults. This study was canied out on fatal head injury cases representing all selected cases of criminally suspected fatal head injuries referred to the Forensic Medicine Departments in Midlle Delta, Ministry of Justice, during the period from the first of January 2004 to the end of December 2005. During the period of study, ninety-two cases were selected to be victims of direct impact loading to the head and ten cases died from other medical or traumatic causes rather than head injury were taken as control cases . The aim of this work was evaluation of the direct and indirect pathological effects of fatal head trauma on different target brain areas as well as the indirect pathological effects on the different selected body organs in a trial to throw a light on the events and causes that may lead finally to death. Complete evaluation of all selected cases was done regarding the personal history, the available history of general disease, circumstantial evidence, external examination and internal examination. In this study, males were the most common victims (78 cases) sustained fatal head trauma and those of the third decade of age were the most frequent (28 case), whilst females were the least common victims (14 cases) and half of them (7 cases) were in the second decade of life.