Zerbo S, Spagnolo E Ventura, Salerno S, Re G Lo, Guajana A, Alongi A, Argo A
1 Department For Health Promotion, Maternal and Child Care, University of Palermo, Section of Legal Medicine. Palermo - Italy.
2 Department of Radiology University of Palermo.
Med Leg J. 2018 Sep;86(3):152-156. doi: 10.1177/0025817218759164. Epub 2018 Feb 19.
The commonest cause of blunt cardiac injuries is from traffic accidents followed by violent falls, sport activities, accidents or a fight but rupture of the heart is rare and lethal. The precise incidence of cardiac injury after a blunt chest trauma is unknown as rates vary greatly in the literature from between 7% and 76% of cases. Autopsy studies have shown that the right ventricle is the most frequently ruptured, followed by the left ventricle, right atrium, intraventricular septum, left atrium and interatrial septum with decreasing frequency. Post-mortem imaging is a rapidly advancing field of post-mortem investigations of trauma victims. The available literature dealing with the comparison of post-mortem computed tomography results with forensic autopsy indicates that conventional autopsy remains superior for the detection of organ and soft tissue injuries in all body regions.
