title: A rare case of steering wheel injury causing coronal-plane pancreatic lacerations.
abstract: The incidence of pancreatic injury after blunt abdominal trauma is extremely low. A timely and accurate diagnosis is important, as a delay could be life-threatening. In this case, a 70-year-old driver crashed a car into a concrete wall at low speed. He was transported to the emergency hospital but died about 9.5h later with the cause of death unknown. An autopsy revealed that his pancreas was lacerated in the coronal plane and there was mesenteric contusion. Cause of death was determined to be blood loss resulting from pancreatic and mesenteric contusion. The mechanism of the injury was considered to be a very rare "degloving," caused by the impact from the steering wheel. It is therefore important to keep in mind possible pancreatic damage when examining blunt trauma to the abdomen, especially in traffic accident cases.
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan. Electronic address: leg017@osaka-med.ac.jp.
authors: Takako
authors: T
authors: Sato
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Aya
authors: A
authors: Kashiwai
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Chisato
authors: C
authors: Ota
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Masakatsu
authors: M
authors: Nomura
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Kento
authors: K
authors: Tsuboi
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Misa
authors: M
authors: Kitagawa
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Shuntaro
authors: S
authors: Abe
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Hitoshi
authors: H
authors: Tsuchihashi
authors: Division of Preventive and Social Medicine, Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
authors: Koichi
authors: K
authors: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000007:Abdominal Injuries; D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy; D000069836:Degloving Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D022125:Lacerations; D008297:Male; D010179:Pancreas / Q000293:injuries*; D013898:Thoracic Injuries; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating
keywords: Blunt abdominal trauma; Degloving; Pancreas injury; Traffic accident