Virtopsy: CT and MR imaging of a fatal head injury caused by a hatchet: A case report
Garyfalia Ampanozi1, Thomas D Ruder, Ulrich Preiss
1University of Bern, Centre for Forensic Imaging and Virtopsy, Institute of Forensic Medicine, IRM, Buehlstrasse 20, CH 3012 Bern, Switzerland. Garyfalia.Ampanozi@irm.unibe.ch
Legal Medicine (Tokyo, Japan)
|May 25, 2010
Abstract:
Hatchet blows to the human skull often cause fatal injuries. We present a case of homicide by hatchet blow that underwent CT, MRI, and autopsy examination. Skull fragmentation, fracture lines, and brain injuries were demonstrated prior to autopsy. Many of the hatchet-specific characteristics (flaking, crushing, shattering, and fracture lines) described in literature were observed in the post-mortem imaging of this case.
