Bone Rarefaction After Skull Injuries

Abstract

We have observed, several times in the past, areas of bone resorption in the skull following an injury, though in no instance was a connection between the trauma and the post-traumatic change unequivocably established. Recently, there have come to our attention, however, similar changes years after injury but with definite proof of the occurrence and nature of the antecedent trauma. The object of this paper is to present three cases and to point out that one or more years after a skull injury—not necessarily a fracture—bone absorption and bone deposition may occur in the injured area, more particularly in younger persons. While we can present only a few cases, we believe that larger institutions will be able to throw the support of their rich material into the discussion of the problem here presented. Sir Thomas Lewis once said that it took him eleven years to find his first case of coarctation of the aorta, but only one year to find the next eleven cases. Skull fractures and skull injuries are in many re...