Linear fracture Linear<unk> s are breaks in the bone that transverse the full thickness of the skull from the outer to inner table. They are usually fairly straight with no bone displacement. The common cause of injury is blunt force trauma where the impact energy transferred over a wide area of the skull. Linear<unk> s are usually of little clinical significance unless they parallel in close proximity or transverse a suture, or they involve a venous sinus groove or vascular channel. The resulting complications may include suture diastasis, venous sinus thrombosis, and epidural hematoma. In young children, although rare, the possibility exists of developing a growing<unk>  especially if the fracture occurs in the parietal bone. Depressed fracture Depressed<unk> . A depressed<unk>  is a type of fracture usually resulting from blunt force trauma, such as getting struck with a hammer, rock or getting kicked in the head. These types of fractures—which occur in 11% of severe head injuries—are comminuted fractures in which broken bones displace inward. Depressed<unk> s present a high risk of increased pressure on the brain, or a hemorrhage to the brain that crushes the delicate tissue. Compound depressed<unk> s occur when there is a laceration over the fracture, putting the internal cranial cavity in contact with the outside environment, increasing the risk of contamination and infection. In complex depressed fractures, the dura mater is torn. Depressed<unk> s may require surgery to lift the bones off the brain if they are pressing on it by making burr holes on the adjacent normal skull. Diastatic fracture Cranial abnormalities in cleidocranial dysplasia including diastatic sutures. Diastatic fractures occur when the fracture line transverses one or more sutures of the skull causing a widening of the suture. While this type of fracture is usually seen in infants and young children as the sutures are not yet fused it can also occur in adults. When a diastatic fracture occurs in adults it usually affects the lambdoidal suture as this suture does not fully fuse in adults until about the age of 60. Most adult diastatic fractures are caused by severe head injuries. Due to the trauma, diastatic fracture occurs with the collapse of the surrounding head bones. It crushes the delicate tissue, similarly to a depressed<unk> . Diastatic fractures can occur with different types of fractures and it is also possible for diastasis of the cranial sutures to occur without a concomitant fracture. Sutural diastasis may also occur in various congenital disorders such as cleidocranial dysplasia and osteogenesis imperfecta. Basilar fracture Superior view of the skull base. Basilar<unk> s are linear fractures that occur in the floor of the cranial vault (skull base), which require more force to cause than other areas of the neurocranium. Thus they are rare, occurring as the only fracture in only 4% of severe head injury patients. Basilar fractures have characteristic signs: blood in the sinuses; cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea (CSF leaking from the nose) or from the ears (cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea); periorbital ecchymosis often called 'raccoon eyes' (bruising of the orbits of the eyes that result from blood collecting there as it leaks from the fracture site); and retroauricular ecchymosis known as "Battle's sign" (bruising over the mastoid process). Growing fracture A growing<unk>  (GSF) also known as a craniocerebral erosion or leptomeningeal cyst due to the usual development of a cystic mass filled with cerebrospinal fluid is a rare complication of head injury usually associated with linear<unk> s of the parietal bone in children under 3. It has been reported in older children in atypical regions of the skull such as the basioccipital and the base of the skull base and in association with other types of<unk> s. It is characterized by a diastatic enlargement of the fracture. Various factors are associated with the development of a GSF. The primary causative factor is a tear in the dura mater. The<unk>  enlarges due, in part, to the rapid physiologic growth of the brain that occurs in young children, and brain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsations in the underlying leptomeningeal cystic mass. Cranial burst fracture A cranial burst<unk> , usually occurring with severe injuries in infants less than 1 year of age, is a closed, diastatic<unk>  with cerebral extrusion beyond the outer table of the skull under the intact scalp. Acute scalp swelling is associated with this type of fracture. In equivocal cases without immediate scalp swelling the diagnosis may be made via the use of magnetic resonance imaging thus insuring more prompt treatment and avoiding the development of a "growing<unk> ". Compound fracture epidermis to the meninges allowing outside environmental contact with the skull cavity A fracture in conjunction with an overlying laceration that tears the epidermis and the meninges—or runs through the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear structures, putting the outside environment in contact with the cranial cavity—is a compound fracture. Compound fractures may either be clean or contaminated. Intracranial air (pneumocephalus) may occur in compound<unk> s. The most serious complication of compound<unk> s is infection. Increased risk factors for infection include visible contamination, meningeal tear, loose bone fragments and presenting for treatment more than eight hours after initial injury. Compound elevated fracture A compound elevated<unk>  is a rare type of<unk>  where the fractured bone is elevated above the intact outer table of the skull. This type of<unk>  is always compound in nature. It can be caused during an assault with a weapon where the initial blow penetrates the skull and the underlying meninges and, on withdrawal, the weapon lifts the fractured portion of the skull outward. It can also be caused by the skull rotating while being struck in a case of blunt force trauma, the skull rotating while striking an inanimate object as in a fall, or it may occur during transfer of a patient after an initial compound head injury.
Skull fracture
Basilar skull fracture
Le Fort fracture of skull
Mandibular fracture
Nasal fracture
Cervical fracture
Zygoma fracture
Subgaleal hemorrhage