title: Basilar Fracture Due to Frozen Corpse: A Case Report.
abstract: Basilar fractures are one of the consequences of craniocerebral injury, which is serious enough to cause death. Legal examiners often pay attention to basilar fractures at autopsy and analyze the relationship between them and death. It is noteworthy whether the fracture is premortem or postmortem. Here, we describe a rarely reported case of basilar fracture due to freezing. In this case, a 30-year-old man was frozen (-18°C) for 6 months after death. At autopsy, external examination showed no trauma. However, on internal examination, there was a basilar fracture which caused controversy but turned out to be a postmortem injury. We provide the case description and discussion on antemortem or postmortem basilar fractures as a differential for these cases.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China, †Key Laboratory of Evidence Science, China University of Political Science and Law, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Junchao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yibo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Yiqun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sizhe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015925:Cryopreservation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D020205:Skull Fracture, Basilar / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology