Compound Skull Fracture
A fracture which occurs in conjunction with an overlying laceration which tears the epidermis and the meninges or runs through the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear structures, resulting in the outside environment being in contact with the cranial cavity is termed a compound fracture.
Compound fractures may either be clean or contaminated. Intracranial air (pneumocephalus) may occur in compound skull fractures.
The most serious complication of compound skull fractures is infection. Increased risk factors for infection include visible contamination, meningeal tear, loose bone fragments and presenting for treatment more than eight hours after initial injury.
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Famous quotes containing the words compound and/or skull:
“Rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins, that, Master Brook, there was the rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I don’t have to pound on that thick skull of yours and make big speeches as to what this mission means to us. I think you know. If you do good, it means the lives of several thousand men, so do good.”
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, Lester Cole, and Raoul Walsh. Col. Carter, Objective Burma, giving a subaltern a mission (1945)