When you get into a crash, you are likely to suffer from injury on three major parts of the body: the head, the neck and the spine. Focusing on head injuries in specific, you have common and uncommon injuries.
While cerebral contusions and concussions often surface as a more common issue, you can also deal with lesser common problems like skull fractures. But what harm can these fractures cause?
The impact of a heavy hit
Merck Manual takes a look into skull fractures and what that means for you. A skull fracture can actually result in some relatively heavy damage for a sufferer. First of all, it often indicates the amount of force behind the blow to your head, as it takes quite a lot of pounds per inch to break the skull bone – especially near the top.
The heavier the hit, the more likely you are to suffer from a concussion or cerebral contusion. Blood can start to leak from the brain and surrounding tissue if it slams into the skull too hard. This can create swelling which may cut off the oxygen supply to the brain, leading to cell death and brain damage.
Physical signs of a fracture
Blood will often collect in empty cavities in the skull, causing bruising to appear behind the ears and around the eyes. You may also notice the leaking of clear fluid from the ears or nose, known as cerebrospinal fluid.
If the skull suffers a bad enough fracture, you can even end up dealing with lacerations to the soft brain tissue from the bone fragments or the jagged edge of the fracture itself. This can cause brain damage as well and serves as one of the many reasons why skull fractures require immediate medical care.
