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Traumatic herniation of intestine through ruptured skin at the ankle

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Abstract

Vehicular runover of pedestrians is a commonly reported occurrence in literature. The usual presentations at autopsy are avulsion of the intra-abdominal viscera, solid organ crushing, hemorrhage, fracture of pelvic bone and vertebra, and herniation of the abdominal contents. There are reports of many cases where the abdominal and thoracic viscera have herniated out of their respective compartment following rupture of the diaphragm. Herniation of the intestine through natural orifices or other anatomical openings of the body has also been reported. This herniation occurs following a reduction in the anteroposterior diameter and acute increase in intra-abdominal pressure, displacing the abdominal contents out of their normal position through some natural anatomical openings inside the body following the path of least resistance. We report an interesting case of vehicular runover where the intestinal coils have come out of the body at the ankle. The authors describe the plausible mechanism and the route through which the intestine could have traversed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Dhanvantari Nagar, Puducherry 605006, India

    Siddhartha Das & Kirthika Ravi

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  1. Siddhartha Das
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  2. Kirthika Ravi
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Contributions

KR was involved in the initial write up of the manuscript as well as the illustration of Fig. 4. SD conceptualized and went through the manuscript critically and made the necessary changes wherever desired.

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Correspondence to Siddhartha Das.

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Das, S., Ravi, K. Traumatic herniation of intestine through ruptured skin at the ankle. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 17, 734–737 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-021-00399-5

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