Skull Fracture
A skull fracture is any break or damage in the cranial bone (also known as the skull) because of an impact or a blow to the head. There are several types of skull fractures. some of them are given below:
1. Linear Fracture
Linear fracture results from low-energy blunt trauma over a wide surface area of the skull. It runs through the entire thickness of the bone and, by itself, is of little significance except when it runs through a vascular channel, venous sinus groove, or a suture. In these situations, it may cause epidural hematoma, venous sinus thrombosis and occlusion, and sutural diastasis, respectively.
Subtype of Linear Skull Fracture
Hinge Fracture
A common linear base of skull fracture passes across the floor of the middle fossa, often following the petrous temporal or greater wing of the sphenoid bone into the pituitary fossa.
Separate the base of the skull into two halves. Usually being caused by a heavy blow on the side of the head
Diastatic Fracture
These are fractures that occur along the suture lines in the skull. The sutures are the areas between the bones in the head that fuse in young age. In this type of fracture, the normal suture lines are widened. These fractures are more often seen in newborns and older infants.
2. Depressed Fracture
Requires enough heavy force.
Fractures usually start at point of impact.
Object which area is less than 16 cm2 can cause depressed fracture with recognizable shape of the object.
Pond Fracture
In infant, pond fracture is common. it is also known as Ping Pong skull fracture.
Ping pong skull fracture or pond skull fracture refers to a depressed skull fracture
Pond fracture = a shallow depressed fracture forming a concave pond.
Spider’s Web Fracture
If the object is wider, it can cause “Spider’s web fracture”
Spider’s web fracture = a circular fracture at point of impact with radiating fracture from the center
3. Ring fracture
These occur in the posterior fossa around the foramen magnum, particularly following a fall from a height (with primary ‘feet first’ impact), where the kinetic energy transfer is transmitted up the cervical spine.
