Sacramento Injury Attorneys Blog

Knee injuries in motor vehicle accidents are often called dashboard knee injuries because the person slips beneath the car restraints and slams their knees on the dashboard. There are many knee injuries that can occur in a dashboard injury. The patient can fracture their patella, the small disc shaped bone that covers the knee structures or can develop chondromalacia or a softening and damage to the cartilage beneath the patella. You'll often feel an achy knee as well as a grinding sensation when you walk with the knee. There can be ruptures of several ligaments within the knee, such as the ACL, MCL, LCL or PCL ligaments. The knee may become unstable and surgery may be necessary.

Common symptoms of knee injuries include a popping sensation in the knee, either at the time of injury or when you bend it later, redness, bruising or swelling of the knee, tingling of the knee, grinding or locking from pieces of cartilage being free floating or ripped within the knee, feeling unstable when you walk, or a deformity of the knee (in severe cases).

The types of injuries you can have with the knee include an anterior cruciate ligament tear or ACL tear. This stabilizes the knee and without an intact ACL you can often not walk and will have pain with the knee at rest that gets worse with motion. These can be isolated or can occur along with a tear in the meniscus. Surgery is usually necessary to repair this sort of injury.

You can also get posterior cruciate ligament tears. It is less common because this is a stronger ligament. It can be damaged during a severe dashboard injury or by falling on a knee that is flexed. A PCL injury is rarely isolated and is often coexisting with other injuries to the knee. It is the result of severe trauma.

A medial collateral ligament is the ligament most damaged in just about any knee injury, including motor vehicle accidents. It can be sprained, strained or torn. You can feel tearing or a ripping sensation, followed by swelling and bruising along the medial border of the knee. This type of injury is common in sports injuries as well as motor vehicle accidents.

The knee can become strained or sprained in a motor vehicle accident. It happens when the ligaments get stretched but not torn. All of the above ligaments can be strained or sprained, leading to pain, difficulty walking and a period of disability when it comes to walking on the knee.

It is estimated that about ten percent of all bodily injuries in a motor vehicle accident occur to the knee. Most of these injuries were not serious and represented sprains or strains. Most were as a result of frontal impact injuries and were associated with lacerations of the knee. Knee fractures usually happen as a result of high speed impacts and ligamentous tears occur in about 20 out of every 1000 motor vehicle injuries. Women are more likely to experience a contusion to the knee when compared to men. There has been little variation in knee injuries in spite of changes in the lap or three point restraining system.

If you were involved in a motor vehicle accident and need assistance, please call (916) 921-6400 for free, friendly advice.

The good news is that restraints in motor vehicles have become optimized so people have a lesser incidence of upper body damage. Little attention has been paid to lower extremity injuries, however, in part because they do not cause mortality in general and they carry low injury scores. They do, though, cause a great deal of disability in those who suffer them. Not only is there a great psychological burden from lower extremity injuries but there is a longstanding possible disability. Other, unrelated injuries and factors like depression influence how the patient does long term.

A patient can sustain a foot injury from slamming the foot into the seat or footboard ahead of them. Foot injuries may or may not need to be casted but certainly they impair the ability of the patient to get around. It can mean days or weeks off the job until the individual can bear weight. Fortunately there are few long term disabilities from foot fractures.

Tib/fib fractures are very common. These are fractures of the tibia and fibula, and can come from pressure pushing up from force on the bottom of the foot. It can also come from a direct force on the tibial and fibular area. Because the tibia is so close to the skin, an open or "compound" fracture can occur, leading to infection and poor healing. Tibial/fibular fractures can be healed through surgery that uses rods and plates to hold the bony segments together. It can also heal secondarily, with the body casted so that the bones knit together over time. A person with a tib/fib fracture can heal perfectly over 4-6 months of time or they can heal badly with one leg shorter than the other or an abnormal gait.

Femur fractures happen more often in children than in adults. It happens usually when forces below the femur put pressure on the femur and fracture it. It can fracture in the mid-shaft, leading to severe bony instability of the lower leg. The femur fracture is usually healed with rods placed surgically within the marrow of the femur. A person can walk much sooner with surgical correction of their femur fracture. It is rare to have the femur heal secondarily.

High on the femur is the hip. Hip fractures can involve fractures to the proximal femur or fractures to the ball of the ball and joint socket. In theory, a hip fracture can involve a fracture to the acetabulum or "socket" alone but then it is caused an acetabular fracture. Fractures of the hip come from forces directed upward from the foot at the time of the motor vehicle accident. There are many different types of hip fractures, depending on where the hip happens to break. These fractures need to be treated surgically, usually be removing the damaged hip and replacing it with an artificial hip and socket. In some cases, plates and rods are used to repair the hip.

Pelvic fractures carry some morbidity and mortality. They involve the bone within the pelvic region that rings the bladder and reproductive organs. There is generally a lot of bleeding with pelvic fractures that can cause shock to occur.

Lower extremity fractures are serious consequences of motor vehicle accidents. When they are associated with other types of trauma, they can be especially debilitating.

(Portrait attributed to Mikael Häggström via WikiMedia).

If you have a lower extremity fracture caused by a motor vehicle collision and need assistance, please call our office for free friendly advice at: (916) 921-6400.

There are many cases of traumatic brain injury in the US. In fact, there are more than 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries prevalent in the US and about 1.2 million ER visits, 290,000 hospitalizations and at least 50,000 deaths due to this devastating disease. Most traumatic brain injuries occur secondary to falls and motor vehicle injuries. These types of injuries occur when there is an external force on the brain causing brain dysfunction.

A violent blow to the head is the main cause of these types of injuries. It can also be caused by penetrating trauma, such as with a bullet or shrapnel. Brain injury types can be mild, moderate or severe. Fortunately there are many more mild injuries than severe injuries. Traumatic injuries to the brain can have a wide range of psychological and physical effects. Patients can have symptoms immediately after the injury or delayed symptoms.

In a mild brain injury, there may be no loss of consciousness or a loss of consciousness that lasts only a few minutes. There are immediate memory or concentration difficulties and a headache often occurs. There can be dizziness or vertigo associated with nausea and vomiting. Blurry vision or ringing in the ears is common and there can be sensitivity to light or sound. The person may develop anxiety or depression and may have mood swings. There can be fatigue or drowsiness and the person may have difficulty sleeping properly. On the other hand, the patient may sleep more than normal.

In moderate or severe traumatic brain injuries, the symptoms can be similar to milder injuries; however, the loss of consciousness can be many minute or even several hours. The period of confusion can be very long and the person may exhibit profound combativeness or agitation. Speech can be slurred and the person may be so injured that it is difficult to awaken them from sleep. There can be peripheral weakness or numbness and a lack of coordination. Vomiting can be repeated and the headache can be severe. Seizures are not uncommon and a professional evaluation can show dilatation of one or both pupils of the eyes. If there is a skull fracture, clear cerebrospinal fluid can drain from the ears or nose. There can be bleeding from the ear or nose as well.

Children can be injured as well and can have their own set of symptoms. There can be a sudden change in eating or drinking habits as well as persistent crying. The baby may be very irritable and difficult to console. The child's attention span can be poor and they may sleep too little or too much. The child may appear excessively sad and will have lost interest in the normal things in life.

The degree of damage depends on the type of event occurring and on the force of the impact. Injury can be located just to the area of impact or can cause multiple points of damage as the brain sloshes back and forth in the head. Rotation of the head can tear the cellular structures of the brain. An explosion can cause serious injury. Penetrating trauma can permanently kill off a section of brain, including blood vessels, brain cells and the dura of the brain. Any bleeding in the brain can cause swelling and blood clot that ruin the oxygen supply to the brain.

Head trauma accounts for more than 80 percent of death in children over the age of one year. In about 5 percent of situations, the child dies instantly from the trauma. Head injuries are complex, often requiring long stays in the hospital. There exists the need for approximately ten percent of infants requiring long term care with a medical facility after discharge.

Common causes of head injuries in infants and small children include assaults, motor vehicle accidents, child abuse and recreational activities. There can be a combination of primary injuries like scalp wounds, skull fracture, concussion, basilar skull fracture, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage and contusions.

There can be any one of the above primary injuries on top of many possible secondary injuries. Among the primary injuries, there can be a scalp injury. It can be overlying a skull fracture, called an open fracture of the skull. Scalp lacerations can be serious, especially in an infant as they can lead to hypotension and shock. A birth injury called the caput succedaneum is when there is a large blood clot between two layers of bone in the scalp. The blood loss is not as much because the bleeding stops at the suture lines.

A skull fracture in an infant can be linear, diastatic, depressed or comminuted. Ninety percent of all fractures are simply linear and may have an overlying laceration. Diastatic fractures have some distance between the fracture ends. There can be cerebrospinal fluid leaking through the laceration. A major blood vessel can cross over the open fracture, yielding a great deal of bleeding.

In a depressed skull fracture, an inner table of bone is pushing in on the brain. This is dangerous because it can damage the fragile brain tissue and can cause bleeding in the brain. This needs to be treated surgically so that the bony table can be at a normal level again. A third of depressed fractures are considered simple, a third cause a laceration of the dura covering the brain and a fourth have cortical lacerations.

A basilar skull fracture happens in up to 14 percent of pediatric head trauma patients. It occurs most whenever there is a blow to the back of the head. Symptoms that follow can include loss of consciousness, seizures and other neurological symptoms. Doctors may find a Battle sign or Raccoon eyes--areas of bruising that are indicative of a basilar skull fracture. Some of these finding occur in up to 10 percent of all cases of basilar skull fracture.

A concussion can occur if the head trauma is mild. Patients often show few signs of neurological damage; however, infants can show somnolence, vomiting and post traumatic seizures. Older children will exhibit post traumatic amnesia of the events after the concussion.

Brain tissue can be contused by the head trauma. This is caused by a direct blow to the head. The most vulnerable areas are the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. Along with the contusion there can be edema of the brain and increased pressure around the brain which can result in death.

Handling a legal battle due to the death of an infant can be a painful process. It would be good to enlist a compassionate legal office to handle this matter for you. Please feel free to contact the Law Offices of Edward A. Smith to handle matters of this nature for you.

(Photo Attributed to Portraitlady4306 via Wikimedia Commons)

In some cases, patients sustaining trauma to the head and neck area will have both closed head injuries and maxillofacial trauma. Of the two, closed head injuries are more severe and need to be managed before the maxillofacial trauma is treated. Patients with closed head injuries can have intracerebral hematomas, subdural hematomas or epidural hematomas. Each of these blood clots can increase in size and can cause excess pressure on the brain. This can lead to semiconscious states or coma and, in severe cases, they can cause herniation of brain tissue through the foramen magnum at the base of the brain. Such a condition is almost uniformly fatal because the patient is unable to breathe on their own and have instability of pulse and blood pressure.

The recommendation of most physicians who suspect an intracranial injury when a maxillofacial injury is noted give the patient a CT scan of the head and face. This CT scan will determine the presence of bleeding, swelling and blood clots in the brain and will demonstrate any skull fractures or facial fractures. When the brain is stabilized through surgery or other modality, then the maxillofacial fractures, contusions and lacerations can be managed secondarily.

How many patients with maxillofacial injuries actually sustain cranial injuries on top of the facial injuries? One study looked at a hundred closed head injuries associated with the presence of facial fractures that were treated at a Level 1 trauma facility over a seventy-eight (78) month period. The facility was located in Northeastern Ohio. It was found that approximately 17.5 percent of patients with facial fractures also had closed head injuries. Males sustained closed head injuries four times more often than women with an age group predominance of about 16-30 years of age. About 59 percent fell into this age group. The most common cause of injury was a motor vehicle accident at 61 percent. While most injuries were sustained due to auto accidents, motorcycle accidents resulted in the most severe cases of head injury. There were more mandible fractures when compared to maxillary fractures with a ratio of 1.3 to 1. Facial fractures were found to have a similar incidence as in the non-head injured population at 14 percent but were associated with more severe intracranial injuries.

There is a greater chance of traumatic skull injuries when the facial fracture is closest to the skull. For example, if the maxilla or frontal bone is fractured, it can more easily extend up or back to include a fracture of the cranial bone. If the jaw is injured, there is less of a chance that the skull will be fractured, too. If a maxillofacial injury results in severe blunt trauma to the head, it can cause similar blunt trauma to the brain; brain injury is the result.

The combination head injuries and facial injuries which are severe and often require a team of neurosurgeons, ENT doctors, plastic surgeons and maxillofacial surgeons to take care of the head injury first, followed by any facial bone fracture and any facial soft tissue injury.

Of primary importance to those who suffer such severe injuries is their health. If you wish to alleviate the stress of your claim while recuperating from a severe injury, feel free to contact Law Offices of Edward A. Smith (www.AutoAccident.com) to assist you. The toll free number is (800) 404-5400.

Photo Attributed to Andrew Ciscel (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/ via Wikimedia Commons)

Children's accidental injuries are one of the major causes of death to children all over the world. In fact, millions of children die each year from unintentional injuries. Such injuries can be as common as cuts and burns to those severe injuries injuries sustained by a pedestrian vs. auto collision. Progress in many countries has been made due to manufacturers recall of products, including toys, that are deemed unsafe. Additionally, many governments have mandated the use of things safety items such as car seats, safety belts in vehicles and bicycle helmets for children.

But there are still large areas of danger, such as pool injuries that result in drowning, the accidental swallowing of household cleaning products, getting burned by being in contact with a hot stove or oven, or being shot accidentally by a loaded firearm. Parents need to be vigilant in protecting children to make sure the environment is safe.

Unintentional injuries are one of the major causes of death and debility in millions of kids who live in developing countries. The inherent dangers of the living places, heavy traffic and a lack of a safe place to play are leading causes of injury in developing countries. Lack of appropriate childcare is another risk factor for childhood injuries. There is little access to emergency services and many can't afford access to emergency services if it existed.

In these countries, attention is paid to nutritional problems and communicable disease. In this area, child mortality numbers are going down. However, death due to injury is seen as a less significant problem in developing countries. Therefore, there is little research and attention paid to the issue of childhood accidents in some lands. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to think of unintentional injuries as something that is unpreventable. There is an immediate need for more research to understand the nature of childhood injuries in developing countries.

A study was done in Japan on the issue of childhood morbidity and mortality due to accidental injuries. The study was done on 4500 children ages 0-18 years of age who attended a specific emergency room in 1990. The number of patients who had injuries unrelated to traffic accidents was 243. This number was twice the number of children involved in traffic injuries (131 injuries). (Children with relatively ordinary injuries like cuts or scrapes were excluded from the total number of accident patients.)

The most common accidental injury was ingestion or inhalation of a foreign body. Most foreign bodies were ingested into the Gl tract. A total of 42 kids suffered from bronchial foreign bodies. Peanuts were the number one cause of inhalation of foreign bodies. In fact peanuts and other food like peanuts were ingested into the bronchial tree more than 80 percent of the time.

There were 38 cases in which a child nearly drowned and was therefore admitted to the hospital. Among the 38 cases just mentioned, five of the children died. Three of them suffered severe neurological sequelae. Thirty kids survived without residual injury. Bathtubs at home were the most common site of near drowning in young children.

These statistics are listed for educational purposes. They illustrate the real dangers that exist in our homes and the need for adults, governments, and schools to take action that would prevent these injuries.

Nonetheless, from time to time, incidents occur that do result in an injury to a child. If a minor you know has been involved in an incident resulting in injury, feel free to contact this office, Law Offices of Edward A. Smith, for advice on how to handle such claims.

(Photo Attributed to Steevven1, via Wikimedia Commons)

Craniofacial trauma in children involves any injury to the face, upper jaw bone, or skull. It can include skeletal injury, skin injuries and injuries to the neck, nose, eye socket, sinuses, teeth and other mouth parts. It is usually identified by a laceration, swelling or bruising of the facial tissue. Signs of fractures include bruising around the eyes, called Raccoon's eyes or behind the ear, called a battle sign. One can see a widening of the space between the eyes or teeth that are not in alignment. There can be bleeding from the nose, ears or mouth.

There are about 3 million people treated for facial trauma in United States emergency rooms. Of the children involved, 5 percent have suffered facial fractures. In kids under the age of three, most of them suffered their injury due to a fall. In kids over the age of five, motor vehicle accidents are the top cause of craniofacial injuries. This means that seatbelts and proper child restraints can reduce the risk of facial trauma.

Older children have other risks for facial injuries that include cheerleading, gymnastics, contact sports and cycling. Protective gear like helmets helps to reduce the risk of injury to the face. When accidents do occur, there is a great need to recognize and treat maxillofacial trauma in children as soon as possible. The development of their facial bones is greatly affected whenever there is poorly treated care of these types of injuries.

Facial trauma is different in kids when compared to adults. The facial trauma can be minor or can be disfiguring throughout a child's life. It is a good idea to get the best possible treatment in kids, because their face hasn't fully formed and the treatment must be good enough to allow for proper growth and development of the face. Sometimes it takes a team of doctors to manage complicated facial injuries.

The types of facial injuries you'll see include soft tissue injuries or lacerations that can disfigure the face, especially if it involves nerves or cuts perpendicular to the lines of the facial skin. Bone injuries can involve the skull, the maxillary bone, the mandible, the zygomatic arch and the periorbital bones. Some of these can be left to heal on their own while others need surgery to correct misalignment of bones or open fractures, which need to be cleaned out extensively.

Isolated teeth injuries are common and may need the care of a dental specialist. If the teeth do not line up correctly, there must be a fracture of the maxilla or the mandible and these need to be corrected. A knocked out tooth must be placed in milk or salt water and then taken immediately to the emergency room where it can be replaced and temporarily cemented to keep it in place until it heals.

In one study, 750 children who sustained craniofacial injuries resulting from slips, trips and falls. It was found that the peak incidence of these kinds of falls occurred when a child was a toddler with straight falls happening when a child was under the age of one Most patients were in the preschool age group. These accidents happened at home 73-86 percent of the time. Lacerations occurred more in slips and trips than in straight falls.

Some patients are relatively lucky, getting only a basilar skull fracture or a maxillofacial fracture. While these are complex and difficult to treat, they are not as bad as having a combined maxillofacial fracture and basilar skull (skull base) fracture. Having this type of combined fracture requires a team approach of surgeons that can manage cranial injuries, orbital injuries, ENT injuries and other forms of maxillofacial injuries.

Often these types of injuries are initially overlooked because the patient has more life threatening injuries on other body areas. If these things are completely unnoticed, however, it can lead to diplopia, deafness, cerebrospinal fluid fistulae, cranial nerve injuries, meningitis or facial paralysis. It is therefore important to have early recognition and management of these injuries so that complications can be avoided. While thought of as less important fractures, there are cases of extreme morbidity and mortality associated with these injuries.

Maxillofacial fractures involve fractures of the zygomatic arch, fractures of the maxilla, the frontal bone, the nasal bone and the mandible. There are several distinct patterns of fracture that occur and that need surgical revision. Usually a maxillofacial surgeon, an ENT surgeon or a plastic surgeon manages these types of cases.

A fracture located at the base of the skull can be called a basilar skull fracture. This fracture can include parts of the skull like the temporal bone, occipital bone, ethmoid bone or the sphenoid bone. Basilar skull fractures are rare fractures to have, involving only 4 percent of cases of severe head injury. The fractures are dangerous because they can rip a hole in the meninges, resulting in leakage of cerebrospinal fluid from around the brain. The fluid leakage can dribble through a perforated ear drum causing otorrhea, or into the nasopharynx and out the nose. Both blood and fluid can drip out of the ear or nose. When the anterior part of the base of the skull is fractured, doctors can notice a halo sign.

Other signs of a basilar skull fracture include a Battle's sign, which is bruising behind the ears, Raccoon's eyes, which is periorbital bleeding or ecchymosis, cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, bleeding from the nose and ears, blood behind the ear drum (hemotympanum), cranial nerve palsy, vomiting, nystagmus, and deafness. In up to ten percent of cases, there is entrapment of the optic nerve causing unilateral blindness. If the compression is mild and the fracture treated, there can be restoration of the vision over time. In serious cases, death can ensue.

When basilar skull fractures occur, there is a fracture in the posterior skull base or in the anterior skull base. The first type of skull fracture involves the occipital bone, the temporal bone and portions of the sphenoid bone. The second type involves parts of the sphenoid bone and ethmoid bones. Temporal bony fractures happen in 75 percent of all basilar skull fractures. This is the bone that extends up and includes the ear. This is when you get a hemotympanum or leakage of CSF from the ear.

Nasal injuries can occur in the context of violence, motor vehicle injuries, sports injuries and falls. There can be blunt trauma, lacerations, avulsions and fractures as a result of these injuries. Some of these injuries can lead to surgical intervention. Secondary revision surgery or autogenous grafts may be necessary. It may take a multidisciplinary surgical team to manage the injury. The nasal bone may need to be reconstructed and avulsions may need to be grafted if not enough skin is covering the wound.

Nasal fractures are the most common facial fractures one will see. They are often not recognized and aren't treated at the time of the injury. Because the nose sticks out and because it is in the middle of the face, it is predisposed to being injured when the face is injured. Most nasal fractures tend to involve the nasal septum, which is a problem when it comes to a successful reduction of the fracture.

Fractures can be open or closed, depending on whether or not the mucosa is broken open. It is important to identify whether or not the fracture is open because infection can occur in open fractures and need antibiotics. Doctors need to determine if there is a septal hematoma and evacuate the hematoma if present. Failure to do that can cause erosion of the hematoma into the septal bone. Infections can happen with nasal septal hematomas.

Nasal fractures are the third most common of the various fractures one can get. The first and second most common fractures are clavicle fractures and wrist fractures. Other common facial fractures are zygomatic arch fractures at 22 percent, blowout fractures at 12 percent, mandibular bone at 8 percent and maxillary bone at 9 percent of facial injuries. A study of more than 200 patients showed that fractures of the nasal bone were the most common fracture sustained in sports injuries. Nasal septal injuries are on the rise now that airbag use is on the rise.

In kids, nasal fractures are most commonly because of falls. One must always consider the possibility of child abuse in all children who present with a nasal bone fracture. The major clinical findings in adults and children of a nasal bone fracture are a change in the nasal appearance, bleeding from the nose (especially if the mucosa has been disrupted), infraorbital bruising and a change in nasal appearance.

If the nasal fracture has severely abnormal nasal function, an abnormal appearance and the presence of early post injury complications, there is a possible need for surgery. There are a lot of different ways to do internal and external reduction and fixation so the nose looks and behaves normally.

For example, closed reduction can be done under local anesthesia with or without mild sedation, especially if the nasal bone fracture is simple or there is a combination simple nasal bone and septal fracture.

If there is open reduction, there needs to be general anesthesia. This should happen whenever there is extensive fraction-dislocation of the nasal bone and septum, fracture dislocations of the caudal septum or in cases of open septal fractures.

Maxillofacial and cranial trauma are common phenomena in severe motor vehicle accidents or falls from great height. There is a large variety of traumas that can happen, from facial fractures, cranial fractures and fractures that extend from the cranium to the facial bones, called cranio-maxillofacial fractures. One study looked through a large computerized database to see which kinds of injuries were seen under which conditions of injury. They looked at a period of 10 years from 1991-2000 and found 9,500 patients who were admitted to the hospital following cranio-maxillofacial injuries. They were all treated at the University of Innsbruck hospital.

Doctors and researchers looked at the cause of the injury, the gender and age of the patient, the mechanism and type of injury, the presence of soft tissue trauma in the patient and the presence of dentoalveolar trauma, facial fractures and nonfacial injuries.

The researchers found five major categories of trauma in these patients. In a total of 38 percent of cases, the injury happened as part of daily life. In 31 percent of injuries, the mechanism of injury was sports; in 12 percent of cases, it was violence that caused the injury; 12 percent were motor vehicle accidents causing maxillofacial trauma; in five percent, it was a work injury that caused the facial injury. Two percent were miscellaneous types of injuries.

Approximately 3600 patients or 37.5 percent had facial bone fractures and 4800 or so had dentoalveolar fractures. This was about 50 percent of all patients treated at the hospital for these types of injuries. Soft tissue injuries were common at 7800 injuries. There was a male to female ratio of more than 2 to 1 and the mean age was 25.8 years but both of these factors varied greatly, depending on the injury mechanism. For example, there was a higher risk of facial bone fractures in men, an equal risk of soft tissue injury in men and women and a higher incidence of dentoalveolar facial trauma in women.

Those who had facial trauma tended to get facial bone fractures at 22 percent, soft tissue lacerations and other lesions at 58 percent and more dental trauma among those who were injured during life and play activities. The probability of sustaining a soft tissue injury and trauma to the teeth was highest in sports activities such as football, soccer and other team sports. The rate was about 12-16 percent of the time.

The researchers used this information to tell craniofacial surgeons what kind of injury to expect and which kinds of injuries go together depending on the circumstances of the accident. They also felt that the government should consider legislation that helps prevent these kinds of preventable injuries from happening. Most victims were young and many were involved in sports-related trauma so that they could be required to wear facial and dental protection while playing sports or participating in other high risk activities.

In facial trauma, the older person represents only about 4.4 percent per year of age. They are more prone to getting facial fractures when compared to soft tissue injuries that only increase 2 percent per year of age. Younger people are much more prone to getting dentoalveolar trauma with a decrease of 4.5 percent per year of age.

Injuries are common in children and are one of the leading causes of death for kids age 0-18. They can, however, be prevented by understanding what injuries are more common in the different age groups. It may take instruction of healthcare providers, parents, and the children themselves to prevent these injuries from occurring. In addition to the family's financial burden, childhood injuries lead to emotional trauma for parents, society and the child himself.

In one study, a look at the morbidity and mortality of injuries in childhood was used to determine intervention strategies for kids at different developmental levels. They used data from 1996-1998 at a California hospital and by means of death certificate to determine the external cause of injury for children less than 4 years of age. Rates of death and injury were calculated at three month intervals.

There were a total of more than 23,000 injuries and 636 deaths. The annual rate for kids aged 0-3 years of age was 371 per 100,000 population. The rate increased dramatically after 5 months of age, peaking at ages 15-17 months of age. The leading causes of injury were poisoning, falls, automobile, fires or burns and foreign body injuries. Falls made up the greatest proportion of injuries.

The rates of injury for babies aged 0-12 months varied with age. They included falls from a height at 0-2 months, battering at 3-5 months, falls from furniture at 6-8 months and non-airway foreign body ingestion at 9-12 months of age. Hot liquid or vapor injuries were the top injuries in 12-17 months and poisoning by medication was the leading specific injury cause for children of ages 18-35 months and pedestrian injuries peaked at 36-47 months.

Falls from furniture had the highest rate from 3-47 months of age. Kids fell from stairs at under 12 months of age and medication poisoning topped at 21-23 months. Alternative substance poisoning peaked at a younger age, 15-17 months. Falls from buildings was greatest at two years of age. Motor vehicle injuries were steady over the age periods looked at. Both battering and neglect injuries were highest among infants less than 5 months of age. Bathtub submersion rates peaked between 8 and 11 months.

The researchers concluded that the type of injury sustained by the child was dependent on his or her developmental stage. In other words, kids that are ambulatory are much more likely to suffer from falls down stairs or pedestrian injuries when compared to kids that aren't ambulatory. Kids 15-17 months of age overall had the highest injury rate when compared to all kids until the age of 15 years.

They determined that when a child has the developmental ability to get into a hazard but has not developed the awareness that the hazard is dangerous is when the child is at the greatest risk of injury or death from trauma. They were surprised at the high rate of battering at such a young age, necessitating education on this problem in the perinatal period. Medication storage practices also need to be discussed and parents need to make use of poison control advice over the phone through the nationwide poison control system. Pedestrian injuries nearly doubled between 12 months and 17 months, indicating the need for education of parents over kids on or near roadways and driveways.

Whenever there is a defect in the skin or a non-vital section of skin, such as from burns or other damage resulting in scars, it needs to be replaced with a partial or full thickness skin grafting. Skin generally covers the entire body and protects underlying tissues from damage and infection. It also provides thermoregulation via skin temperature changes and radiation of heat through the skin. Restoring a normal skin border is the purpose behind skin grafting.

Skin grafting was performed two millennia ago in India but wasn't popular in western medicine until almost two hundred years ago. Grafting was found to speed healing and reduce fluid loss from major wounds and burns. Grafting makes wounds look better and reduces scar contraction. Wounds that extend to bone must be grafted because bone does not cover itself with tissue or skin.

Skin can be transplanted from one location to another on the same individual. This is called an autogenous graft or an autograft. If the dermis is used in its entirety, it is called a full thickness graft. It looks more like normal skin after this type of grafting when compared to split thickness grafting. In full thickness grafting, the doctor needs more optimal conditions for survival because of the greater amount of tissue that needs to be revascularized.

Full thickness grafting is preferable for visible facial areas that can't be done using local skin flaps. There is less contraction when healing so that the wound looks better when it is healed. The same is true of areas of the hand and over joints, where contraction of the wound can interfere with function of the extremity.

Donor sites are selected based on the recipient sites. The donated skin must closely resemble the skin where the defect occurred, again for reasons of cosmetics. Pigmentation of the skin as well as the presence or absence of hair must be taken into account when selecting a donor site. Full thickness skin grafting must be done whenever a full cutaneous defect is noted, such as with a neoplasm or deep burn. For example, there should be careful inspection of the donor site to make sure it, too, doesn't have a cancer of the skin on it.

When grafting with children, doctors need to be aware of the fact that some hairless areas will have hair later in life, such as the groin, axilla, chest and thigh. This may be undesirable after the child reaches puberty and the hair begins to grow on the graft site.

Common donor sites for facial defects include the upper eyelid, the nasolabial fold, and areas around the ear and neck. It is a good idea to harvest from both sides of the face so as to maintain symmetry of the face and to keep the face looking as normal as possible. The surgeon should avoid the inner aspect of the wrist as this could be an indication of a past suicide attempt and can make the individual feel badly as a result. Surgically removed or avulsed skin can be cleaned up and used as sites for full-thickness grafting.

Hydrofluoric acid is one of the most dangerous Acid Injuries of acids to come in contact with. In an aqueous solution, it is a colorless and fuming liquid with a strong and irritating smell. It is highly corrosive and usually comes in concentrations of 46 percent and 53 percent. It can be diluted to much less concentrated solutions or concentrated to above 70 percent.

The most unique property of hydrofluoric acid or HF is that it attacks glass, etching it. It can dissolve stone and silica so it must be kept in wax, lead, or plastic bottles. It has an extremely caustic effect on any kind of organic tissue. The industrial uses of HF include frosting, etching and polishing glass, removing sand from castings made of metal and for etching silicon wafers in industrial processes, such as the manufacturing of semiconductors.

When one sustains burns to either the eye or the skin from high strength hydrofluoric acid, the burns are extremely painful and severe. Eye burns happen with splashes when the acid is used in industry or a laboratory. Gloves with holes in them or a spill can result in severe skin burns. Burns to the face can happen with splash-like injuries. The burns are more severe if the acid is highly concentrated and if the length of exposure is long. Workers have to avoid inhaling its vapors, because exposure to the airways can be devastating.

Contact with the skin is particularly corrosive. There is marked tissue destruction as the HF ions penetrate the skin. They soon reach the deep tissues of the soft tissue, resulting in tenosynovitis, tendinitis, and decalcification of bone. Destruction of bone is particularly painful and it takes a long time to neutralize this acid, once it has penetrated the skin. Doctors say that even mild exposure to HF can cause a serious burn. If the burn is from HF at concentrations of less than 20 percent, there is pain and redness that doesn't show up for about twenty-four hours. The burns are often made worse because there is an automatic delay in washing of the wound or proper irrigation.

If the injury is due to HF burns of 20-50 percent, the pain and redness takes about 1-8 hours to show up. If the concentration of HF is fifty percent or more, the symptoms and tissue destruction shows up immediately. The different symptoms include only erythema, central blanching along with peripheral erythema, ulceration, blue-gray discoloration and necrosis of tissue.

The possibility of excess fluorine in the system, called fluorosis, can happen with bigger burns as well. Eye contact can happen with vapor transmission of HF through the fumes or from splash injuries. It can result in loss of sight that is permanent or sometimes temporary. Historically speaking, the treatment of these burns has been to apply a paste of magnesium oxide but this isn't used much today. Now Benzalkonium chloride solution is used for the management of hydrofluoric burns. It is also used as an iced solution to decrease the lymphatic spread of HF.

A medical study was done from 1978-1982 that looked at 196 patients who suffered blunt trauma to the colon, small bowel or mesentery. They were treated at a major shock trauma center in Maryland. Greater than 80 percent of the patients were victims of motor vehicle trauma and many had injuries involving more than just the Gl tract.

Sixty of the patients had significant injuries, such as perforation or mesenteric injury with resulting dead bowel tissue. This group accounted for more than 7 percent of the people who had a celiotomy during the same time period. All injuries except for one were diagnosed through the use of peritoneal lavage. Only two people had duodenal injuries. The small bowel often had perforations along the entire course. Colon injuries made up a fourth of all blunt trauma to bowel, mostly occurring in the ascending colon and the sigmoid colon. Of this group, 16 people died. Six of the deaths were directly related to their bowel injury.

Among blunt trauma patients, 5 percent are detected at the time of a laparotomy. CT scan is sometimes used to detect bowel injuries and is now how blunt trauma is detected. Doctors use contrast material, looking for extravasation of blood from the mesenteric arteries or perforations of the Gl tract itself. Using the vascular contrast, one can see stoppage of blood flow in ischemic areas of the mesentery or colon. There can be thickening of damaged bowel wall or fluid in the retroperitoneal space. Sometimes it pays to wait a few hours as long as the patient is stable to have some of the changes show up better on CT scan.

Bowel injuries are the most common blunt trauma to the abdomen. Direct force crushes the gastrointestinal tract and the rapid deceleration seen in motor vehicle accidents causes shear forces in colonic and small bowel tissue. Sudden changes in the pressure within the abdomen can cause a type of bursting injury seen only in blunt trauma.

Commonly injured small bowel areas are the proximal jejunum near the ligament of Treitz, and near the ileocecal valve.

It's important to diagnose a blunt force trauma to the intestinal contents as soon as possible as a delay can result in increased morbidity or even mortality. Death can happen secondary to peritonitis or due to excessive bleeding. The peritonitis can lead to sepsis and death. The symptoms, unfortunately, are very vague in the beginning and can simply be mild abdominal pain, leading to severe abdominal pain, fever and leukocytosis. The use of these clinical assessment tools can lead to a negative laparotomy up to 40 percent of the time. It's apparent that something needs to be done, such as a CT scan, in order to determine the probability of major trauma to the bowel.

A peritoneal lavage is another test for the presence of trauma to the abdominal contents. In this test, an amount of fluid is placed into the abdominal cavity, allowed to swish around a bit and then is extracted from the abdomen. The presence of blood in the fluid (hemoperitoneum) is 90 percent sensitive for detecting a problem. If the peritoneal lavage is done too soon after the injury, up to ten percent of tests can be falsely negative. Whenever possible, the CT scan should be done before the peritoneal lavage so that fluid and blood don't interfere with the CT scan.

An ultrasound can also be done. It is 86 percent sensitive and 98 percent specific when it comes to detecting the presence of an abnormal amount of fluid in the abdomen. This test isn't considered as good as a CT scan of the abdomen so that it isn't used as much.

Should you or someone you know, need legal advice regarding abdominal injuries resulting from blunt trauma, please contact Law Offices of Edward A. Smith for free friendly advice.

Illustration: By Unknown Illustrator [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Dune buggy accidents are not an everyday occurrence primarily because few people ride them. However, among those that do, accidents are fairly common.

The dune buggy usually travels at a great speed over rough terrain. Therefore, rollovers or loss of control of the vehicle are common events that lead to serious injuries, including amputations.Research indicates that the dune buggy can cause severe injuries requiring the amputation of upper extremities, hands, lower extremities or feet.

Below are recent headlines from U.S. newspapers that highlight the severe injuries that can occur with the use of this type of vehicle.

In 2012, a young couple was killed while at a Cozumel vacation spot touring the area. There were five people on the large dune buggy when it slammed into a metal guardrail, killing the couple. The other riders and the driver, who lost control of the vehicle, were only slightly injured.

Allowing minors to operate a dune buggy has often resulted in tragedy. Another dune buggy injury happened to a girl that was only 11 years old at the time of the accident. After losing control of the vehicle, the young lady fell off. She sustained two broken knees and a broken thumb. Additionally, she had deep gashes in her forehead and body due to the glass breaking on the vehicle. She was airlifted to Yuma, Arizona, where she underwent surgery to both knees and had a thigh high cast for 6 weeks. She was told that she would never walk again. Because she was a soccer player, she was obviously devastated. She underwent physical therapy and rehab for two months. Fortunately, the young lady was able to recover a great deal of her mobility in her lower extremities.

Unfortunately, the girl's story is not uncommon. Worse, many victims die or are seriously maimed by this type of accident. In this case, the cost of the medical attention and rehabilitation she received was high. The cost of such bills presents a problem to many victims as not every person has the insurance coverage to pay for such treatment.

Not all dune buggy accidents are single vehicle accidents and this is one example. A young driver of a dune buggy was killed in Nevada. The dune buggy driver, only 19 years of age, was driving on a dirt road when he lost control of his vehicle and slid into the path of an oncoming truck. Reports indicate that the dune buggy was moving at a high speed rate. The impact was severe. Sadly, the young man was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger was seriously injured and was taken to a Reno Hospital for further evaluation and management. The people in the truck were relatively uninjured.

Some dune buggy injuries are relatively unusual and typical only of dune buggy accidents. An example of an injury specific to this type of recreational vehicle typically occurs to the hand. In most cases it is of the passenger who will instinctively grab the roll bar during a rollover. This results in a crush injury with amputation or avulsion at the level of the metacarpals. The thumb is usually spared but the rest of the fingers are either lost or partially lost. Because of the locale of these rollover accidents, the wounds are often seriously contaminated and there is often a delay of appropriate treatment.

One article indicated that there should be a redesign of the roll bar and better protection of the passenger so that the passenger can't reach up, grab the roll bar and crush his or her fingers. The U.S. Product Safety Commission has published reminders to help keep the above mentioned type of injuries from occurring.

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