Depressed skull fracture by a mass of 3kg in shot putt an adolescent of 13 years. A rare sports injury. A rare fracture of the skull-deflection shot putt

Farikou Ibrahima; Mathieu Motah

doi:10.1016/j.ijscr.2014.10.024

Depressed skull fracture by a mass of 3kg in shot putt an adolescent of 13 years. A rare sports injury. A rare fracture of the skull-deflection shot putt

Int J Surg Case Rep. 2015:6C:203-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2014.10.024. Epub 2014 Dec 11.

Authors

Farikou Ibrahima¹, Mathieu Motah²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery and Surgical Specialties, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon; General Hospital of Douala, Cameroon. Electronic address: ifarikou@hotmail.com.
² Department of Surgery and Surgical Specialties, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Cameroon; General Hospital of Douala, Cameroon.

Abstract

Introduction: More and more teenagers indulge in sports at school or in recreational settings. Some of these sports are considered to be purveyors of accidents and should be practiced by putting in place safety rules and regulations. This report is unusual case of a school child of age 13 who suffered from depressed skull fracture due to accidental fall of a mass of 3kg during an athletics meeting.

Presentation of case: He was a 13-year-old boy who accidentally received on his head a throwing mass of 3kg thrown by a young athlete at a school athletics meeting. He became unconsciousness for a moment. The radio clinical evaluation showed a parietal depressed fracture without mass effect on the brain parenchyma to the CT scan. Depression was surgically removed in quite favorable manner.

Discussion: Karting is known as a particular sporting accident that causes head injuries affecting mostly children. Other sports such as boxing and skiing are also known to cause trauma but wearing helmets has significantly reduced these sports injuries. Throwing sports can also lead to accidents in the absence of strict security as demonstrated by this case. It was a skull depressed fracture that was operated upon because it entailed a risk leading to a compressive callus.

Conclusion: This accident could have been avoided if basic safety precautions were put in place.

Keywords: Adolescent; Depressed fracture; Shot putt; Skull.