ANALYSIS OF DEFECTS IN DIAGNOSIS AND FORENSIC MEDICAL ASSESSMENT OF SKULL BONE FRACTURES

Abstract

Determining the age of skull bone fractures, especially flat fractures, is a challenging task for forensic medical expertise, as these fractures don't always heal properly due to poor alignment of their edges. Aim of the work. To investigate diagnostic defects and forensic medical expert defects that complicate the assessment of skull bone fractures by analyzing the archive database of the Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for the years 2017-2021. Materials and methods. The material consisted of 928 forensic medical commission examinations of traumatic brain injuries conducted at the Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine from 2017 to 2021. Statistical indicators were used: mean values, standard deviation (M±ϭ), frequency of cases (N), confidence interval (Р±95%СІ), Student's criterion for relative values (t) to assess the statistical significance of differences between fractions (p<0.05). Results. Diagnostic defects of skull fractures by physicians included: insufficient detailing of fracture description in medical documentation, unreliability of soft tissue injury description, inadequate use of neurovisualization methods, incorrect recording of trauma circumstances in medical records, and incomplete description of neurological symptoms. The main expert errors in affected individuals were the absence of correlation between skull bone fractures and intracranial injuries and soft tissue head injuries, while in corpses, there was incorrect description of skull fracture morphology. Conclusion. The use of additional neurovisualization methods and a comprehensive approach correlating all head injuries can improve forensic medical assessment of skull bone fractures.