[Mechanical tolerance of tentorium cerebelli (author's transl)]

In some cases of accidents primary traumatic brain stem hemorrhages are seen in conjunction with lesions of the tentorium cerebelli. In order to decide, whether accelerations of the infra- or supratentorial brain tissue are actually capable of causing tentorium lesions, burst and teartests of tentorium tissue were conducted. The mean dynamic biaxial tearing force was found to be about 4 bar. This value supports the hypothesis that a main injury causing factor of the tentorium in cases without skull fracture could be the relative motion between the tentorium and the brain hemispheres. The mass of the cerebellum however seems to be insufficient to cause such injury producing deceleration forces on the tentorium.