Contus？o cerebral em vítimas fatais de acidente de transito: frequência e associa？？o com outras les？es cranioencefálicas

a morphological study, macro and microscopical, was made of brain lesions in 120 victims of fatal road traffic accidents. contusions of the brain were identified in 67 (55.8%) of the patients. the contusions especially affected the orbital surfaces of the frontal lobes (27.8%) and the temporal poles (19.8%). the recent brain contusion was associated with a skull fracture in 70.1% of the cases and with a diffuse axonal injury in 89.5%. these can be explained by the association of contact and inertia from the road traffic accidents. old contusions were identified in six patients (5.0%).