Traumatic fatal aortic rupture in motorcycle drivers

Abstract

Traumatic fatal aortic rupture (FAR) is a common finding in victims of motor vehicle crashes (MVC), but its aetiology and mechanisms of production remain an issue of major concern, above all in motorcyclists. This study reports a series of cases obtained from a retrospective analysis of traumatic FARs occurring in motorcycle drivers, with the aim of defining the injury patterns and correlating them with the mechanisms of FAR production. Circumstantial, autopsy and histology data were collected through a retrospective analysis of post mortem examinations performed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Padova between 2014 and 2016. Among 151 traffic related victims, 8 were motorcycle drivers and displayed traumatic FAR and were thus included in the study. In 7 cases, the presence of abdominal/thoracic injuries suggested that the external compression due to the accident was at least a concurrent cause of FAR, being the predominant mechanism of aortic injury in 4 cases, through the "osseous pinch" or the "waterhammer effect" mechanisms. Our study highlights the well-known role of "preventative forensic pathology", which has become routinary in traffic medicine since many years, also for defining the points of impact and the injury patterns of motorcyclists sustaining traumatic FAR, thereby facilitating the development of new prevention strategies and devices. Further studies, however, are needed in order to widen the investigated population and to estimate the real number of victims for which traumatic FAR might hypothetically be prevented with specific countermeasures.

Keywords: Blunt trauma; Countermeasures; Fatal aortic rupture; Injury pattern; Motorcycle accidents; Preventative forensic pathology.