Zur Nomenklatur der Traumatologie des pneumatisierten Schädels

Summary

Localisation of the fractures of the pneumatised skull and their combinations were investigated based on patients treated in the ENT-Surgery-Department of the University of Würzburg during the last 15 years. Thereby we found, that fractures of the ear-skull are rarely combined with fractures of the bones of the face. Thus they form a separate group. We propose the definition “otobasal fracture”, as the course of fracture line is generally not only limited to the base resp. the pyramid, but also spreads into the Squama temporalis or the mastoid process. The definition “otobasal” therefore describes the course of the fracture line of the ear-skull including the base close to the ear.

We differentiate three groups of fractures in the respiration skull: the frontal fractures not concerning the base, the fractures of the anterior cranial fossae only concerning the base that were found only in the rhinobasis, not in the orbital base, and the frontobasal fractures. In nearly half of the cases the fractures of the respiration skull were combined with yaw fractures. We therefore propose to define the fractures depending on the localisation of the course of the fracture lines, i.e. simple frontal and maxillo-frontal fractures; simple rhinobasal and maxillo-rhinobasal fractures and frontal (rhino-/rhinoorbita-)basal fractures and maxillo fronto-(rhino-/rhinoorbita-/orbita-) basal fractures.