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Internal patterned injuries in trauma

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Abstract

Patterned bruising of the internal organs is unusual. In these cases a cutaneous pattern of bruising is not observed but the underlying tissue may show unusual injuries that may even be recognizable as a tramline pattern. We report the suicide of a 23-year-old man by jumping off a bridge. At autopsy, an unusual finding was “tramline” bruising of the right liver lobe. The “blunt objects” that inflicted the bruising were determined to be the right ribs which were pushed against the liver capsule as a consequence of the extensive thoracic and vertebral trauma after a fall from a height with intermediate impact.

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Funding

This study was not funded.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Turin, Corso Galileo Galilei 22, 10126, Torino, Italy

    Lucia Tattoli

  2. Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Turmstr. 21, Building N, 10559, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Tsokos & Claas Buschmann

Authors
  1. Lucia Tattoli
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  2. Michael Tsokos
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  3. Claas Buschmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucia Tattoli.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Tattoli, L., Tsokos, M. & Buschmann, C. Internal patterned injuries in trauma. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 14, 123–126 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-018-9953-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-018-9953-2

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