Radiating Fracture
Definition
A linear fracture extending outward from the impact point, initiated by inner-table tension as the outer table is compressed; propagates until arrested by a suture, a prior fracture, or a region of reduced stress.
- Context
- Skull or bone blunt-force trauma
- Origin
- Inner-table tension under impact
- Terminates at
- Suture, prior fracture, or stress-relief zone
Common questions
Why does a radiating skull fracture stop where it does?+
Propagating fracture energy is absorbed or redirected when it reaches a cranial suture, an existing fracture line, or a region where bending stress has already dissipated, so the fracture arrests rather than continuing indefinitely.
How do radiating fractures help establish the sequence of multiple blows to the head?+
A later radiating fracture cannot cross an earlier one and instead stops when it reaches it, so by mapping which fracture lines terminate against which, an examiner can often reconstruct the order in which blows were delivered.
Related terms
- Bearing Surface
- The area of the striking implement that was in contact with the skull at the moment of force transfer; its geometry can...
- Concentric Fracture
- An arc-shaped fracture encircling the impact zone, produced by outer-table bending tension at a distance from the focal impact; always post-dates the...
- Depressed Fracture
- A fracture where the impacted skull segment is driven inward beyond the elastic limit; the geometry of the depression reflects the bearing...
- Diffuse Loading
- Force distributed over a broad contact area (as from a fall onto a flat surface or a broad-surface blow); produces a broader...
- Focal Loading
- Force concentrated on a small contact area of the skull surface (as from a hammerhead, poker, or stone edge); produces a discrete...
- Hering's Principle
- The 1853 observation that a radiating fracture from a subsequent impact is arrested when it reaches a fracture line produced by a...
- Perimortem Fracture
- A fracture produced at or near the time of death while the bone retains green (fleshed) properties; distinguished by sharp fracture margins...
- Wedge Fracture
- The three-dimensional fracture geometry described by Berryman and Symes (1998): a conical inner-table failure zone wider than the outer-table defect, produced by...
- Wolff's Law
- The principle that bone is deposited and resorbed in response to mechanical loading history. Cortical thickness and trabecular orientation follow principal stress...