Investigation of the force associated with the formation of lacerations and skull fractures

Post mortem examination is often relied upon in order to determine whether a suspicious
death was natural, accidental, suicidal or homicidal. However, in many cases the mechanism
by which a single injury has been inflicted cannot be determined with certainty based on
pathological examination alone. Furthermore the current method of assessing applied force
relating to injury is restricted to an arbitrary and subjective scale (mild, moderate,
considerable, or severe). This study investigates the pathophysiological nature of head
injuries caused by blunt force trauma, specifically in relation to the incidence and formation
of a laceration. An experimental model was devised to assess the force required to cause
damage to the scalp and underlying skull of porcine specimens following a single frontoparietal
impact. This was achieved using a drop tower equipped with adapted instrumentation
for data acquisition. The applied force and implement used could be correlated with resultant
injuries and as such aid pathological investigation in the differentiation between falls and
blows. Experimentation revealed prevalent patterns of injury specific to the reconstructed
mechanism involved. It was found that the minimum force for the occurrence of a laceration was 4000 N.