Fractures of the skull : the Hunterian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England on February 29th and March 2nd and 4th, 1904 / by Louis Bathe Rawling.

Rawling, L. Bathe (Louis Bathe)

Date:: 1904

Credit: Fractures of the skull : the Hunterian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England on February 29th and March 2nd and 4th, 1904 / by Louis Bathe Rawling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$H The basic foramina.—Battle, the only authority on skull fractures who enters into detail with regard to the influence of the foramina on the direction of a fracture, states that “the line of fracture is usually arrested if it meets with one of the foramina in its course, especially if the foramen be a large one.” A careful examination of macerated skulls shows, how- ever, that this view is erroneous; Fig. i, f illustrates three separate cases, chosen from numerous others, in which the fracture after reaching the margin of the foramen magnum was Fig. 3. ABC D E F Showing lines of forces as applied and the direction of fractures resulting therefrom. again continued on the other side of the foramen. The fracture, after traversing the thin cerebellar tossa, usually strikes the foramen magnum just posterior to the condyle and starts again at a corresponding point behind the opposite condyle, tending then to pass onwards parallel to the original direction but not in the same straight line. More rarely a fracture on reaching the foramen magnum is continued on the opposite side in the same straight line. 1 his condition is, however, exceptional and I have only met with two such cases,$