Computed tomography as a forensic tool in laryngotracheal trauma /Mansour A. Alghamdi

Laryngotracheal injuries are uncommon but often life threatening. Forensically, the assessment of survived cases is usually based on the external findings and several subjective elements such as reports from the involved persons and witnesses. Therefore, the need for more objective methods is crucial for forensic experts. Clinical computed tomography (CT) is sufficiently advanced to provide detailed descriptions of the internal structures. This study aims to evaluate the use of CT as a forensic tool in survived and nonsurvived cases of laryngotracheal trauma in three aspects. These aspects are studying the mechanism of injury, the assessment of the life threatening condition of neck trauma and the estimation of age through laryngeal cartilages ossification patterns. A total of five patients were included in this study (4 survived cases and one deceased). Information and data were collected retrospectively from medical records, autopsy findings and radiological reports. Radiological images were also analysed. The danger of threat to life was evaluated based on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), the Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the New Injury Severity Score (NISS); all five cases were declared as having life-threatening injuries. NISS has proven to be more sensitive than ISS.