Subependymal injuries in anterior horns of lateral ventricles and saggital rotational acceleration applied to the head

The authors histopathologically surveyed 12 autopsy cases with fatal head traumata, especially regarding neural tissue injuries at the anterior horns of the lateral ventricles, compared with 32 control cases with no head traumata. Traumatic injuries, including axonal injuries as well as hemorrhages, tearing of white matter and neurofilamentcontaining hypertrophic astrocytes were observed in the neural tissue adjacent to the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle in 8 cases which were killed by rotational mechanism when wounded, while other 4 cases without those traumatic lesions had linear or direct injury to the head. It is suggested that traumatic changes in the subependymal zone around the anterior horn might suggest saggital rotational acceleration to the head. The simplicity of this examination method is also emphasized.